Tears of Blood
by Victoire Marie Devastia
Summary: This story is about a young girl, 16,000 years old to be exact named Victoire who along with her guardian and a few friends from the past is trying to take control of the ruling kingdom of Hell that she was in line for the throne for. Sadly, No there is no Sebastian Michaelis due to the fact that I couldn't imagine myself ruining his character and it has no relation to BB.
1. Chapter 1 Prelude

La Plume Noire

PRELUDE

What happened is not something any person, living or dead can put into words easily, though for some of those who bore witness to the actions that night it is much harder. It can only be described as one thing by others, an unfortunate disaster, but as for me, well, let's just say it was the beginning of my life.

It started out just like any other night. It was a frigid and unusually quiet October night at my house though, about fifty degrees perhaps. I was having some of my dear friends stay over for Halloween and there were ten of us all sitting downstairs in the basement, my parents were away on 'business' or so they called it. There were several of us, Gianna, Deana, Cecelie, Hayley, Julia, Cassidy, Rachel, Beth, Megan and myself. We sat around talking and laughing and having a good time, when all of a sudden, everyone looked up the brown dark wash stairs and heard the oven ring.

"Would anyone like to come up and help?" I quickly asked. There was no reply.

"Nice people, really nice of you to volunteer and help." I exclaimed quite sarcastically. There was a faint laugh in reply to this. I rolled my eyes and headed up the stairs.

No one was home except us girls, so I only heard a faint chatter from the girls and the sound of the oven creaking as I opened the door. I pulled the brownies out of the oven just as the timer went off and started to cut them evenly into tiny, crumbling squares, staring at them intently. I was almost done cutting them when I heard the loud screams of the girls downstairs, the sounds that I at first thought were just to scare me. I dropped the brownies, rounded the corner, and ran for the stairs as fast as my legs could carry me. When I arrived at the bottom of the steps in the foyer, the lights were out and every one of the girls was letting out loud, shrill screams, or so I thought.

I walked quietly, without noise over to the light switch and turned the lights back on. The girls were all huddled in the middle of the carpet, their faces drenched in a blanket of sweat, and each of their skins was as pale as a sheet.

"What's wrong?" I asked. They were all trembling in tune with my shaking hands.

"The lights went out and we just kind of screamed" said my friend Deana.

She was the tallest and most talkative of our group. She was always crafty too, coming up with some of the cutest costume designs and things of the sort. I counted the number of shaking girls sitting on the floor, I counted eight. There should be nine. I counted again, still eight.

"Where's Gianna?" I asked them.

The girls all looked around and shrugged as if it wasn't an issue at the moment. I wondered if they had some sort of apathy syndrome at the time because each and every one of them didn't seem as worried for anyone else as they did for themselves. Though if you put two familiar animals in a cage with a predator, one is bound to bolt and let its friend fall prey to the predator.

"Great!" I said.

"Gianna, if you're playing some kind of trick, it's not funny." I said, though I highly doubted Gianna was playing a trick, but just in case she was, I had said it.

There was an eerie silence and no reply from my dear friend. I walked around the corner, looking for Gianna, and went behind the bar. There, lying as dead and silent as night itself was my dear friend Gianna with a stake stabbed through her heart. Blood bubbled out from the wound in her chest and cascaded down her blood soaked clothes, pooling at my feet. I stared, at the look of pure horror that was to be plastered on her face for the rest of eternity, unable to move or speak. I felt sadness and horror start to creep up on me like a predator closing in on its prey. My heart skipped a beat as my eyes fluttered around the room, looking for something to save her. I sank to my knees and started to push weakly on her chest, desperately trying to start a heart that had long since given up beating. Tears silently slipped down my cheeks as I kept trying.

"Tori! She's dead; you can't do anything to bring her back." Megan yelled, grabbed my shoulder and shaking it roughly, effectively waking me from my strange grief induced trance.

So many problems whirled through my mind in a tornado of discord. First of all, my closest friend was dead and that hit me where it hurt most, in my heart, but not only there, it also scarred my mind. Plus, we probably had some kind of psychotic killer on a killing spree in my house and who knew where they were hiding? This was not good at all, I had to find them and dispose of them before anyone else was hurt. My main priority at the time was to keep the others safe. I searched the entirety of the house for anything misplaced that might give me a clue as to who might have killed Gianna.

Nothing, I found nothing at all that could be out of its usual spot in my house. Well, there was a shadow that nothing was casting. It was just sitting in the middle of my room on the floor. I had seen this type of shadow before. I called them outcasts. I always thought they were harmless and that they couldn't hurt myself and I believed that all the way up until now. Now I had reason to believe they could be very dangerous and vicious because I believed this was what killed my friend and my assumptions were soon to be proven correct. As soon as I saw it, it darted with speed and precision like an arrow down the stairs toward my friends, or what remained of them. Then I heard screaming and lots of it, and one of the shrill, ear piercing sounds was coming from me. Luckily, three of my friends including Julia, Cassidy, and Rachel were with me at the time when this happened. The outcast had just grazed Rachel's foot as it was fleeing and upon this she fainted, falling into my arms. Apparently the outcast had special effects that accounted for Rachel's fainting. I picked her up and my friends and I darted for the stairs at the same time.

When we arrived in my basement we found Deana, Hayley, Megan and Cecelie huddled in the corner with looks of pure terror plastered on their faces.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" I asked.

They looked at me, then at the floor. I followed their gazes. There right in front of them was the outcast simply rippling like a pool of liquid. I stared at it, wide mouthed for a few minutes. I then regained my strength and walked over to the huge black puddle and reached out to deal it a blow, but it went darting out of the room like lightning. In the process it touched Rachel and she awoke with a startling gasp, which caused her to fall roughly from my grasp. The outcast apparently had an affinity for putting things to sleep and waking them up.

I then heard a disembodied moaning sound come out of nowhere and I knew it wasn't Rachel. I whipped around and there was Beth, with a black belt fastened around her throat. Blood poured from her throat and mouth, staining her bright orange hair and I knew there was nothing in my power that I could do to save her. At that thought, I bowed my head and began to cry for the second time within the past hour of my life.

The tears rolled slowly off my face and hit the carpet without a sound, leaving spots on it that were a darker stain of silver than the carpet was. I was having the worst night of my life. I decided that we all had to hide somewhere that the shadow couldn't follow us. We decided to try outside first. We also decided to send Cecelie to make sure it was okay. We put about twenty pounds of armor on her too, though it was really just pillows taped to her for protection. I can't exactly say that that was one of my brightest ideas ever.

"Can't we just send Cassidy? She'll definitely scare it off." She stated sort of playfully.

I turned to look at Cassidy. She was trembling in the corner spouting some nonsense about 'the awakening' and saying that 'The Indelor has come of age; the Indelor must be someone close to Him, I must make sure that She lives to revive the Prelylium." I figured she would be of no use now, not that I knew anything about what she was speaking of.

"That will haunt and scar me for the rest of my life." Julia said honestly.

After a few minutes of discussing Cecelia went up the stairs towards the front door and she yelled down. "I still think we should send Cassidy!" We followed close behind until we reached the top of the steps. Cecelie ran through the kitchen and to the back door. We then watched the door creak open as Cecelie pulled on it slightly and she stepped through.

After a few minutes I decided it was safe so we started to walk back to the door. I wondered why Cecelie hadn't said it was okay to come outside… Then, a loud crash emerged from outside the door along with the sound of glass shattering into tiny dagger like pieces. A sound that is most terrifying in this type of situation. I wildly flung open the smooth wooden door and glanced around the deck. It was vacant, desolate. As I wondered where Cecelie was, I noticed my flower vase had shattered and there was a red liquid substance dripping from a few shards of glass on the deck. I walked over and examined the substance, and then proceeded smelled it. It reeked of copper and death; I wrinkled my nose in disgust. It was blood and lots of it. I looked down from the deck and on the grass beside the deck support post was a very, very dead Cecelie. It seemed her spinal cord had snapped in half. I sighed and whimpered sadly, though I wondered how she had come to that much damage from a five maybe six foot fall.

"Three down, seven to go." I said.

"What?" The girls shrieked in harmony.

My friends gasped in unison when they looked down below. Some cried, some shook with shock and pain, and some just stood there frozen with fear. My new mission was to keep my remaining friends safe at any cost. I told everyone that we were going to run down to my grandmother's house which I presumed would be like a safe haven for us in the state of mind that we were in though it wasn't one of the brightest plans ever. I still have no idea why that would help us. We gathered supplies for the trip down the road and Hayley went downstairs to find some flashlights for us all.

After a few minutes there was a clatter and a loud scream that was shrill like a bird's whistling call. I winced in pain as I knew Hayley was now dead too. I couldn't bear to see her dead. It was wearing me down every single time that one of my beautiful and precious friends died by this monstrosity's hand or tentacle or whatever it had. This bringer of torture and death was the blackest of blasphemies that had ever successfully entered into the desolate realm of infinity in my mind. The time for action was coming soon as the hour drew near. We were planning on leaving my house at the stroke of midnight, quite ironic being the midnight on Halloween was the time we decide to run. We all were bustling around my house trying to keep as quiet and careful as it was possible to for six teenagers. At 11:45 I assembled groups of whoever was left. At about 11:53 I made a change to the groups because somehow in all the middle of this, Deana managed to 'fall' down the stairs onto the point of an umbrella that just happened to be there. It was sad to see her name erased from my roster of remaining friends. She was one of the most cheerful of all of us which meant that things would become even more gloomy and desperate without her.

"Cassidy kind of scares me more than the shadow thing I think." My friend Julia said in a kiddingly shaky voice.

At 11:58 I started talking again. "Are you girls ready to go out into what I think will be the biggest war in your lives?" I asked solemnly.

Almost shakily they said "We're ready to follow you into Heaven or Hell as long as your there to lead and guide us to your best ability." I sniffed as new tears were born and rolled down my pale white cheeks.

"If you're prepared to follow me into Hell, then I am proud to be both your friend and your leader" I announced.

I always was held high in their respects because of this very reason and it pleased me to no end that they actually meant everything they said before then. I unlocked the door and we took our first step outside.

The air was frigid, crisp, and cold all at the same time and it was pitch black all except for the moon shining bright and luminescent above our heads. There was a strange feeling in the wind as it howled and whistled through the trees. The gusts of wind whipped our hair into our eyes, making vision of the long twisty road ahead of us impossible. I found some hair ties in my bag and passed them out to the girls. As soon as we put on the hair ties, we were off again. I saw something black dart past my foot and yelled "RUN" to the girls. We took off, our feet hitting the pavement, the sound bouncing and echoing off the trees.

As we went past my friend Kourtney's house we saw her and my friend Stephanie jumping up and down and waving, yelling "HI!" to us. When we didn't answer them they looked around us and caught a glimpse of the outcast zipping by us. They looked at it terrified to move a muscle, let alone speak, then ran screaming back into Kourtney's house I scoffed. Then the outcast whipped around in front of us and halted, stopping us dead in our tracks. It was blocking our path, so I had to figure out how to get past it. I made a plan so that our group could keep going. On three we were going to split into the groups I had formed and run down the street on either side. I quietly whispered the first two numbers just loud enough so they could hear, then I screamed three.

We shot down the road like comets in a moonlit sky. When Julia and I had gone behind a car and had come out, I realized the other girls had been massacred, even Megan from my own group. They all were lying strewn across the road, covered in blood. Shards of glass, rocks and twigs protruded from each of their bodies. I saw Megan smile from a distance and mouth something to me but I couldn't hear it. What had she said? Tears of fury burned off my face for all of my friends. Julia and I were at the cul-de-sac of my street and were about turn into my grandmother's driveway when the outcast sped by me and grabbed Julia, she screamed out into the desolate night where no one would ever hear her but me. This frightened and angered me the most. I had already felt like shit for not being able to protect the other eight, there was no way in Heaven or Hell that I was going to lose her too. "NO!" I screamed with anger and fury. I stared straight at the big outcast. "I have had enough of your damn games tonight!" I said. "Just Leave Us The Hell Alone!" I screamed as I started running towards them at full speed. When I was close enough, I grabbed Julia and jumped straight into my worst enemy and nightmare. This was the most deadly thing I could possibly do, or so I thought…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1- Miss. Victoire Marie Devastia in Prison

I sat up and looked around, noticing that I was in fact not in my room, but in a place that strangely resembled a prison cell. Okay, this is definitely very strange, I thought to myself. I looked around the tiny little room and found a rickety bed, a tiny sink, a grimy toilet, and a small barred window. I cringed at the sight of the toilet. They expected me to use _that_ and in front of my _guard_. Honestly, I had no clue what these people were thinking. The wall across from my bed was made up of thick metal poles starting at the ceiling and ending at the floor with a small metal door in the middle. An angelic looking old man stood next to the door with his arms crossed across his chest and a rusty old set of keys dangling from his hand, he was my guard. He looked middle aged, had lightly tanned skin and a balding head.

I slowly turned my head away from him and glanced across the hallway. There, in the cell opposite me, lay Julia sleeping peacefully with a look that suggested she didn't have a care in the world. I felt the urge to call out to her, but resisted it.

I sat up on the bed as the rusty metal springs creaked in the old mattress beneath me. After a second, I stood up and slowly turned around to face the bed I had been previously laying on. I surveyed the room for anything that could be giving me the feeling that I was being watched then heard a strange sound, almost like a whimpering dog, but much deeper and hollower sounding. Slowly, I crouched down to look underneath the bed where I guessed the sound was coming from and saw a small, dark silhouette. I looked closer and noticed that there, sitting in the middle of the shadows, was a small vampragon, much like the one from one of my re-occurring dreams. The only exception was that he was all black instead of covered in blood and had a small black diamond hanging from a maroon colored satin ribbon tied around his slender neck. As I looked into his big, dark eyes, I saw a glimmer that suggested that he was a jack of all trades, so I decided to name him that, but Jack for short.

I turned on my heels and headed over to the man standing outside my cell door. I demanded to know where I was and he slowly answered that I was in Heaven's Prison. As he said the last few words, a hint of vexation crept into his tone.

"Why are my friend and I in here?" I asked angrily.

"You are in here because the Outcast failed to kill you, so it sent you here." He said.

I then had a flashback of the night when all of my friends except Julia had been brutally murdered by that wretched Outcast. This caught me by surprise and sent me reeling back onto the bed which creaked loudly and caught the guard's attention. I cautiously stumbled over to the small barred window where I stood, staring out at the dark moonlit sky. The air was still except for the occasional zephyr that blew through the small window. I leisurely walked back over to the prehistoric bed and sat down as it creaked. Again. For about an hour or so, I sat there cogitating why that _thing _had wanted us dead in the first place. The reason still remained unknown.

Gradually, I stood up and walked over to the old guard. As I approached, he seemed to, very slightly stiffen. As he did so, one of his glimmering luminescent white feathers quietly fluttered down from one of gaudy feathered wings. This man's personality seemed like a wolf in sheep's clothing, or rather a devil in an angel's guise. Frankly, it scared the heck out of me, or whatever was left of me.

"Excuse me?" I asked the guard as frigid chills made their way down my spine.

"Yes?" The old man asked cautiously.

Wow, this guy seemed really different from the previous time we talked. The first time we talked, he acted as though I was beneath talking to him, now he was acting like I was a mass murderer about to kill him next. Man, what was it with the subject of murder; it just kept popping right back up.

"Could you please tell me why that Outcast was trying to kill me in the first place?" I asked politely.

"That's c-confidential information." He said shakily. _Great_, I think I just got promoted to the devil, I thought.

"Could you tell me why it killed my _friends_?" I asked with uncertainty in my tone.

"T-that's also confidential." He answered.

"Can you give me _any_ information besides why I'm here and how I got here?" I asked in an annoyed voice. I was done being patient, because this guy was getting on my nerves.

"N-no I c-can't" He said quietly. With that I was pissed, I backed up a few paces and ran as fast as I could toward the guy, even though I knew there were bars between the two of us.

I slammed against the bars as hard as I could, the loud sound resonating throughout the entire hallway, causing the old man to jump ten feet into the air. Seeing as he didn't know I was running toward him due to the fact that he was facing the other way. He hovered there for a few seconds then slowly descended to the floor. Nice, I got to see his wings in action, so I guess he really was an angel.

"You're in a lot of trouble missy." He said angrily as his face flushed bright red.

"Oh really?" I replied snarkily.

He took a deep breath like he was about to say something, but shut his mouth and slowly shook his head back and forth instead. Jesus, this guy was annoying. I wasn't done with him yet though.

I reached a hand out the cool metal bars and lightly touched the feathered tip of the man's wing, just to annoy him; this made his anger light up like a candlewick.

"Don't touch me!" He yelled.

"I'll touch you if I want to, even though it doesn't necessarily seem very appealing to me."I said matter-of-factly. "And don't treat me like you're my advisor, because you're not!" I said with as much hatred as I could force into a sentence.

With that, I stomped over to the bed and plopped down as the springs creaked loudly. I hated being treated like a prisoner all the way down to my core. It made me feel so powerless.

Jack looked up questioningly at me from under the bed as if to ask "_Are you _okay?" If I could speak vampragon, I would have said "No, Jack I'm not okay, not at all, and I don't think I ever was." He kind of stared at me with those huge, dark eyes of his wondering what I was thinking. Sighing, I stood up and reached under the bed to pet him. As I did so, he slowly inched his way out of the darkness and slightly into the light. Across the hallway, I heard Julia yawn and sit up.

"Victoire, what happened?" She asked slowly.

I told her all about what had happened and where we were and how we got here, and by the end of it all she and I were both in tears over our lost friends. The past two days were like living in my own personal Hell what with all the tragic events that had occurred. Why on Earth was God letting us be treated like this? I wondered. I mean we've been followed, almost killed, and put in jail. IN _HEAVEN_. I mean, come on. To me that just makes no sense whatsoever.

The thought started to send me into another one of my famous thinking sessions, but I quickly stopped myself. I looked up at the ceiling and started counting the cracks to keep my mind off the strange topic. You know you're beginning to become insane when you start talking to yourself and count the cracks on your prison cells ceiling, and that's exactly what I was doing at the moment. Truthfully, I was starting to creep myself out with all of this out of character behavior.

In the past few days I had gone from the perfect sixteen year old student who achieved all A's on her report card to a crazy sixteen year old girl who sat in her jail cell staring at the ceiling all day. In all honesty I didn't know why I deserved this. I kind of really wanted to know the answer to that question more than any other question I had asked my guard.

I began hearing very quiet voices whispering in my head and had no clue what they were or where they were coming from. With that, I decided I was officially insane. Every few seconds the voices would come again and each time they sounded a bit louder than the previous time. It was actually beginning to send me into hysterics when they were at their loudest point, but they suddenly vanished right as a huge explosion sounded from the stone wall at the end of the hallway.

The explosion had caused a large brown cloud of dust to rise and it caught my attention. It was like Hell for me to just sit behind those thick, metal bars and not be able to participate in the action that was occurring right in front of me. This was one of the problems that always got me in trouble back home; I loved to take part in anything that involved fighting.

The guard who once stood outside my door had vanished into the cloud of dust within an instant. Upon his disappearance I began hearing the sounds of an intense battle raging right outside my cell door. One in which, I was not a part of. Within seconds, the hallway was silent except for the sound of quiet footsteps racing through the hallway. Wait, _footsteps_? I was expecting some kind of beast to be running amok in the hallway what with all the noise I've been hearing.

Suddenly, I heard a key jiggling in the lock on my cell door, so I began to back up. A few seconds later the door to the cell flung open and a large shadow in the shape of a person stood there looming over tiny little me sitting on the old bed. Jack looked up at me and in my mind whispered '_It's okay to trust them_'. Wait a second; Jack just whispered in my mind, wow, I really am insane.

Well, I always was anyway. _'You can hear me because you're my master' _Jack whispered to me via my mind again. He stared up at me with those huge eyes for a moment. I decided that I could trust everything Jack told me because he was the only friend I had in this cramped little cell. 

The tall shadowed person took a step forward out of the shadows and revealed himself to me. He stood at about seven feet tall, had shoulder length, straight, edgy golden brown hair and emerald green eyes. He honestly looked like a god to me. His eyes looked at me so softly that they melted all the ice in my heart and he absolutely radiated with light.

After a few seconds of just staring, I cleared my throat and in a queenly voice asked "Who are you and why are you here?" Slowly he moved toward me and ever so gracefully got down on one knee. Jeez, was this guy going to propose to me? Talk about insensitive, we just met!

"My humble apologies your highness, my name is Matthew." He said politely.

Wait a second; did he just call me _your highness? _"I think you have me confused with someone else." I said frantically.

"I have not confused you with someone else, and the proof is this here vampragon." He said as he pointed at Jack.

"How is he proof?" I asked.

"He is proof because he was once yours before you were born as a human and you are the only one he can speak to." He said intelligently.

The world was drastically changing on my end of it. First I was just an average sixteen year old and now I'm someone's queen. I mean, how much could one girl's life change in just a few days? Just then, another man walked into the cell. He was tall, taller than Matthew was by about four inches.

He walked over and kneeled in front of me just as Matthew had earlier and I got to see just a glimpse of his face. Strangely his face looked just like the one that was in every single one of my re-occurring dreams. He was pale, extremely pale, with chin length jet black hair and deep amethyst eyes that seemed to glow slightly red. It was a trait that I found very appealing.

"My lady, it would be in our best interest to hurry back to the homeland before the guard wakes up." He said hurriedly.

"Fine, but how do we get home and where exactly is home?" I asked questioningly.

"You'll see soon enough." Matthew Interjected.

I made a face and he just shook his head and quietly cursed under his breath. Apparently, he wasn't as nice as I thought he was. Then, someone came up from behind me and as hard as she could thrust her palm into the back of my head knocking me unconscious. Just before I went down I saw the brat's face and heard her despicable name. _Aurelia_. I could tell that she and I were not going to get along very well. At that thought I blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Her Majesty's Embarrassing Revelation

I sat up and blinked a few times as my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the beautifully furnished room I lay in. All around me were beautiful, ancient looking artifacts. There were old bows and arrows sitting in an old oaken chest, gorgeous paintings and drawings of royalty lined the stone walls and in the corner sat a suit of shiny black armor. What I noticed most of all was that in the middle of all the paintings on the walls was a huge portrait of a queen that looked strangely enough exactly like me and was dressed in all black. That was odd. I mean I liked her color choice and all, but having royalty look exactly like me was different, quite different indeed.

I turned over onto my side and noticed that in a black velvet chair beside the bed sat the second boy that I had seen before I was rudely knocked unconscious. He sat there sleeping peacefully, his head tipped back ever so slightly and his silky hair falling over his closed eyes. He looked like a perfect little angel sitting there so quietly. Ever so slightly I shifted my weight to light the antique looking candelabra next to me, but before I could it was already lit and the man was standing right beside it. That completely just blew my mind.

"Excuse me, but who might you be?" I asked curious for more knowledge of this stranger.

"My name is Lukanatian, my queen." He said solemnly.

"Why are you in the room that I am sleeping in?"

"Because I am your guardian and butler, and it is my job to watch you at all times and make sure you remain safe."

"And how did you just do that?"

"Do what?"

"Get to the candelabra before me even though you were sleeping."

"I got there before you because I'm faster than you. Many years ago I was bestowed with incredible speed and strength for fulfilling my duties as your guardian and butler."

Why was everyone around me trying to protect me so much? Well, that was something to discuss with Julia later. Wait a second, where was Julia?

"Could you tell me where my friend Julia is?" I asked Lukanatian impatiently.

"Who's Julia?" He asked questioningly.

"She was the other girl in the cell across from me."

"Your highness, there was no one in the cell across from you."

"But, she was there before you guys broke in…"

"The guard probably took her away to punish you for something you said. Do you remember saying something that might have provoked the guard?"

"Oh god, what will they do to her?" I asked as I remembered the guard saying that I was in a lot of trouble. Man, I really was an instigator.

"They'll probably take her away where she'll be turned into an animal and then set loose in the wild here where she'll most likely… die. That's what they do with most prisoners."

"This is all my fault." I sobbed.

"It's not your fault." He cooed softly as he slowly stroked my hair over and over again.

Strangely enough, I didn't mind him talking to me like this at all; I actually kind of found it comforting. After a minute of sobbing, I put on my poker face and asked Lukanatian to go get me something to wear. Within seconds he had disappeared into an enormous closet across the room from the bed I was laying on. Soon he returned with a white undershirt, a gray v neck short sleeved shirt, a black full length silk vest and blue knee length dark wash shorts. Strange, they looked just like clothes that I had recently bought when I was back home. Wait, they were the clothes that I had just bought.

"Um, where did you get these clothes?" I asked Lukanatian

"From your house." He replied.

"So you basically snuck into my house and stole my clothes without my permission?"

"Well, yes, nothing here seemed like it would be to your liking." He said slowly with a small smile on his face.

I glanced into the closet and saw all kinds of pieces of old, dark clothing that were in fact to my liking.

"Is that so?" I said.

"Yes" He quickly replied.

"Whatever Lukanatian, I know you just wanted to learn all my secrets from my room." I said as I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"No, I didn't!" He said all too quickly for me to believe him.

"I don't really care as to why you were in my room; in fact I would like you to go back there and get my iPod and its charger, also all of my books and my fish too. Got it?"

"I'll do only as you wish my lady." He said just before disappearing out the large wooden door.

As soon as he left I began peeling all of my old clothes off and replacing them with the new ones that Lukanatian had left for me. Just before I could get my shirt on, the large wooden door creaked open and in walked Matthew. He was all dressed up too.

I stood there just staring at him as he stared back at me, marveling at his beauty. He was like an angel. Slowly his and my cheeks turned rosy pink as we kept staring at each other. Then, all of a sudden I snapped out of my trance like fixation, screamed and jumped for the bows and arrows sitting in the old oaken chest to my right. As I yanked a bow and arrow out and took aim Matthew ran for the door and made it out just before I could kill him. Thank god. That was a weird reaction coming from me. I mean to go for the kill that quickly was very unlike me. But man, had I know I could aim that well with a bow and arrow I would have joined the school archery team!

After that little incident I walked over and finished putting on the clothes which had sat waiting patiently for me all this time. Slowly I let out a muted yawn and decided that I was still tired, so I lay back down on the silken covers. Lukanatian had probably brought them in while I was sleeping and he probably thought I would like them. Which… I do. Then, I slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

Leisurely, I rolled onto my side in the massive queen sized bed. Quite a coincidence considering I was the queen of the land that I was in. I looked around the room; it seemed Lukanatian had a habit of bringing my things in while I was sleeping. I expected to find him in the chair beside me, but instead I found complete silence followed by a muted thud from below me. It seemed suspicious so I decided I'd go check it out. It was kind of like an adventure for me because I'd never actually been outside my room while I was conscious.

I nimbly leapt off the bed and into the enormous closet. I took a look around and found the darkest outfit I could. It was a knee length black form fitting dress with belled sleeves and a feathered skirt. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I slowly slipped it off the hanger and took it over to the bed. Quietly, I removed my old clothes and slipped into the dress. Surprisingly, it fit perfectly. I noticed that on the hanger in old hand writing it said 'La Plume Noir.' If I remembered correctly from French class, that meant The Black Feather.

After I put on the dress I quickly slipped out the door and examined my surroundings. Outside my door I found a long hallway which led up to my door and at the other end was a large metal door with a keypad right next to it. Strange, I kind of thought I was in a really old castle, so why would this be in here? Oh well, it didn't really matter to me.

I walked down the hallway to the metal door and clicked on the keypad. I stood there thinking of a number for the keypad. It had to be fourteen because fourteen was my favorite number. I entered it into the keypad and after a few seconds the lock on the door clicked and the door swung wide open. That was easy. I closed the door as quietly as I could then I looked around. It appeared that I was in a small foyer that led to a long flight of stairs down.

I began quickly, but quietly climbing down the long flight of stone stairs. After about two minutes of climbing down the stairs I saw the bottom. God I was happy, I mean I must have climbed at least one hundred and forty stairs. That's a lot of work you know. As I neared the bottom I gained more and more speed as I propelled off of each step. When I finally got to the last few steps I heard a noise coming from the next room over and while paying attention to the sound, I lost my balance and fell right on my left ankle.

I felt like a complete idiot as I sat there whining in pain because of my stupid mistake. Well that wasn't stopping me from finding out what that noise was. I slowly pushed myself back up to feet with the stairs and using my right foot to hop and left hand to keep my balance I slowly made my way through the door at the bottom of the stairs. Inside the room I found all kinds of frozen meat and in the corner of that room was none other than Jack my vampragon. He turned and looked at me apologetically and whispered in my mind

'Sorry Victoire, when I'm apart from you I get very hungry'. I was still not used to the mind talking.

"Were you the one making all that noise down here?" I asked Jack.

'Yes, sorry if I woke you'

"It doesn't matter, but can you help me back up to my room."

'I-I'm not allowed in your room'

"I don't care because I'm the boss here and I say you are allowed in there."

'Okay'

Slowly, he helped me out of the room and just as I was about to go up the stairs Matthew walked by. Suddenly, I just froze up and Jack started to growl. He turned on his heels and looked me up and down.

"You look nice." He said with a small smirk.

"Uhhh… thank you." I said awkwardly.

"You're welcome and do you need some help there?"

"Uh… kind of."

Then he walked over and picked me up. Did I completely fantasize him seeing me without a shirt on? That would be really awkward. Slowly, Matthew carried me up the long staircase. Step by step the click of his heels on the steps echoed throughout the long staircase. Finally, it all came out.

"I'm so sorry, I should have knocked first." He said solemnly.

"It's okay as long as it doesn't happen again." I replied.

Then the silence returned as we neared the large metal door at the top of the stairs. At the top of the steps he reached over and put in the code, seconds later the door swung open and he carried me in. At that moment I felt like we were a married couple and he was carrying me over the threshold of the door. Strange.

When he got to my door he pushed it open and walked in. When we made it to the bed he slowly put me down. After that we said our goodbyes and as he was about to open the door to leave I whispered thank you and fell right asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3- Her Majesty's Loss 

The next morning I woke up only to find Sebastien once again sitting in the black velvet chair beside my bed, only this time he was wide awake and smiling at me very strangely. It was kind of creepy. Ok, it was _really_ creepy. I raised an eyebrow at him and all he said was.

"Good morning, my queen."

"And to you." I replied slowly.

"Is there anything you would like for breakfast or would you like me to recommend something for you this morning, my queen?" He asked

"Um, two things. Please stop calling me 'my queen', just call me by my name and what _would_ you recommend for breakfast?"

"Freshly made oatmeal accompanied by freshly baked French bread and a side of fruit just picked from the garden. Oh, and you look absolutely stunning in that dress Victoire."

"Very well, I'll have exactly that and, um thank you Sebastien." I said as I blushed and lowered my eyes to the dress that I had put on yesterday night before I ran into Matthew.

"As you wish, Victoire. I shall be waiting at the bottom of the stairs after you've finished changing."

Then he just vanished. I nonchalantly got out of bed and walked into my closet. I picked up a crisp white shirt, black full length vest and black full length pants. Standing in my closet I took the dress off and replaced it with my new clothes. They were comfortable, yet formal. After that, I walked over to my huge mirror that I had found in the closet and put black eyeliner and mascara on after I straightened my chocolate brown locks of hair. Oddly enough my lowlights in my hair that used to be a very dark brown had turned black and my blue eyes had turned purple like Sebastien's upon my arrival here. That was different. It was a good look for me though.

As soon as I was finished I left the room and walked down the hallway to the large metal door and put in the code. Slowly, the door creaked open. Out I walked to the Stairs of Death. I named them the Stairs of Death because these stairs were quite dangerous and were the ones that I had twisted my ankle on yesterday night. Just then I realized that my ankle was in no pain at all whatsoever, I mean you'd think that it would still be in pain because I just hurt it yesterday!

Wow, talk about fast healing. I thought to myself. Anyway, at the bottom of the steps I found Sebastien waiting silently and serenely. As I approached him his face slowly broke out into a full length grin.

"I presume that your ankle is doing much better." He laughed.

"Immaculate, but how did you know I hurt my ankle?" I asked.

"Master Matthew told me yesterday night that you had injured yourself and I just knew. I guess you could call it a butler's intuition."

"Well whatever, just take me to the dining room alright." I said a bit impatiently.

"As you wish Victoire." He said in his seductive English accent. He wasn't going to get me that easily, ok he might.

As we neared the dining room Sebastien respectfully opened the door for me. It was very polite, not that I liked it or anything, it's just respectful for a man to open the door for a lady. It's chivalrous. I know it's his job, but I'm just not used to being treated kindly.

I stood in silence and awe as I examined the magnificent room in front of me. All around me amazing sculptures of mythical creatures that I had only dreamt of before lined the walls. After closely, but quickly examining the one closest to me, a gryphon that was lashing out with its front paw, I concluded that they had to be sculpted from black diamond. Believe me when I say this, I have no clue how much those must have cost, but they were very beautiful works of art. They were very _sophisticated_.

In the middle of the room sat the grandest dining table I'd ever seen. It was about 4'x 18', made of the darkest and finest onyx and inlaid in the middle of it was a fleur de lis made of completely white marble. Sebastien noticed me staring at the table and smiled.

"It's called 'Le Blanc Fleur De Lis'." He announced.

"Whose table is that?" I asked.

"Yours."

"You're kidding me right?"

"Nope, not kidding. This table used to be yours before you were reborn as a human child."

"Really!"

"Yes, would you like to sit down and eat now?"

"Of course."

Quick as ever, Sebastien flew down to the head of the table and pulled out one of the wooden chairs for me. It was a rather ornate one with the highest back and black jagged looking wings carved into the back of it. Slowly, I sat down and he pushed the chair in for me. After that he disappeared out the door and I took another minute to further examine the room.

There were enough chairs to seat about fourteen people total. I wonder why? Above me hung the most beautiful and most dangerous chandelier I'd ever seen it was glittering white diamond with tiny little knives made of black diamond hanging off the ends of it. I would not want _that_ to fall on me. I thought to myself.

Just then, Matthew walked in. He was wearing almost the same exact uniform as I was except for the fact that he had a red bow tie around his neck and grey pants instead of black. He looked very formal. As he neared the seat at the opposite end of the table I could tell that there was a grim, but somewhat bored look on his face. Slowly, he sat down.

"Sorry for your loss." He mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" I asked with a confused look on my face.

"Oh you didn't hear? Apparently your parents were found dead." He said matter-of-factly.

"Are you serious?" I asked, appalled.

"Yes." He said with no emotion.

At that he left the room. I gazed wide eyed at the table feeling a deep, empty feeling accompanied by that of nausea in the pit of my stomach. Then the tears slowly began streaming down the sides of my pale white face landing without a sound on the shiny onyx of the table. I stared at my blank expression reflected in the onyx. I never thought losing everyone could be this painful, first my friends, and now my family? When would this long cycle of killing ever stop?

Within seconds Sebastien walked in the door carrying my food and was just about to put it down when I told him I wasn't hungry. He turned his head and looked at me. The expression on his face looked so pained and distraught that it even made me feel a little more upset.

"What happened?" He asked truly concerned.

"Matthew told me that my parents are dead."I whispered

Then under his breath it sounded like Sebastien said something along the lines of "that idiot just won't listen will he?" He then leaned down and in my ear asked if I wanted to go up to my room. I was feeling pretty tired after what I'd just discovered so I agreed. He told me that he'd come and get me in a few minutes and again disappeared out the door. Outside the door I heard Sebastien and Matthew arguing then it sounded like someone got punched and I heard the crunch of a bone breaking.

After that Sebastien came back into the room and picked me up out of the chair, cradling me in his arms and carried me out the door. I noticed that leaning against the wall across the hallway was Matthew with blood streaming from his nose and one of his arms crossed across his face. Still shocked, I could only stare at him with a blank expression. I was kind of glad that that was so because if I had been able to do anything at the time, I probably would have wrung his neck because of how insincerely he told me my parents were dead. It would have made a good addition to the injuries he had already acquired from Sebastien.

As I looked up to see Sebastien's expression I noticed that he was smirking ever so slightly at Matthew. It was the kind of smirk that you gave someone when they disobeyed you and you got back at them for doing it. It was eerie.

My gaze lifted up to his eyes and I realized that he was now staring back at me as we walked farther and farther away from Matthew. It was the first time that I had truly looked into his eyes. They were beautiful, almost like tiny, glittering orbs of amethyst with little flecks of black throughout them. I thought it highly possible that someone could get lost in their depths if not careful. They were dangerous, beautiful, and mysterious all at the same time.

Continuing down the hallway, I stared at the tattered banners with the black fleur de lis on them as I pondered why Sebastien would want to keep something as important as my parents' death a secret. Was it because he didn't think it mattered? Or maybe it was because he knew it would upset me if I'd known. Ok so he's either an insensitive jerk or my clairvoyant guardian angel. It was quite a large margin between the two, but I knew that he would never honestly want to hurt me. I could see it in his eyes.

I took a minute to reminisce what had happened in our short past together. It had all started out only a few days ago when he had saved me from that god awful prison cell. That was the beginning of the two of us and my love for him although it feels like I've secretly loved him for an eternity. It was also the beginning of my love for Matthew which had been shattered earlier today after what he had done to upset me. The whole back-and-forth thing with Matthew was seriously starting to annoy me, but my romance with Sebastien was starting to intrigue me and quite a bit at that.

Sometimes it appeared that Sebastien only liked me, but other times it appeared that he truly loved me. At the moment I actually really liked him back, especially for what he did to Matthew. It made me happy to know that someone was on my side for once, and that we were winning. It also made me happy that someone was in pain because they had hurt me. Had it not been for the fact that I could feel nothing at the moment I probably would've punched Matthew myself, but to know that Sebastien had done that for me made me even more so happy then I already was and for that I thought Sebastien deserved something in return. I didn't think that I owned anything materialistic that a demon such as him would want.

I wearily they looked around and realized that we were almost to my room. It surprised me I didn't think I'd been thinking to myself for that long. It was almost like I was in my own little world for the past five minutes. I looked around to make sure that no one was watching us as we began the ascent up the stairs. As his footsteps echoed throughout the long staircase I thought to myself of what I could do in return for him. My cheeks reddened the slightest bit at the thought of what I could do for his retribution. The only thing I really could do was kiss him. It was really the only thing that I could think of that he would want from me off the top of my head. Or maybe, just maybe… he disserved something more…

_Something more than a kiss?_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4- Her majesty's present for Sebastien

When we reached the top of the stairs and made it through the large metal door, he stopped and I looked up at him. No, it was too early to be even considering thinking about _that_ kind of reward. Talk about hormones on a rampage. Ever since I've come to this place almost everything I think about somehow involves a male creature or person. It was not fun _at all_. I was like an animal in heat and believe me, it was not a very pleasing trait. Not something you'd want to hear from a girl if you were a guy, right?

"I'll have you to your room in just a minute Victoire." He said clearly a bit worked up from the events that had occurred this morning. I shivered at the sound of his light, but seductive accent. Although I've only known Sebastien for all of the maybe two days I've been here in this life, I'm slowly remembering everything that happened between us before I left here.

As he began to walk again I could feel the vexed atmosphere that absolutely dripped off of him. I nervously leaned up and just barely brushed my lips against his. As I realized what I had just done. It sent shocks, almost like fire and ice battling throughout my body as I experienced this newly found pleasure. The kiss left my lips tingling and wanting for more as I leaned back and turned my head slightly to the left to look up at Sebastien warily. His eyes were wide open and staring right at me almost as if he was reading all my thoughts and gestures as f I were a book. I raised an eyebrow, but he just continued staring at me wide-eyed and mouth slightly ajar blinking frequently as though he'd just seen something he never thought he would see in his entire life. He kind of deserved a bit more than what I had given him, so I took the opportunity to give him the rest of what he deserved.

Leaning in nervously once again I opened my mouth to breathe then closed it as he did seconds after and swooped in. Leaning up, I pressed my lips against his. His breath tasted like blood and meat, a smell quite pleasant to me for some reason. His lips were soft and warm against mine, but unyielding this time; it was almost like he wouldn't let me kiss him, there was no one around so why wouldn't he return the kiss? I pulled back and wondered why as I stared into the dark purple pools of his eyes that I had remembered almost getting lost in so many times before. Many of my emotions had flooded forth back into the shell of my body after I kissed him, but I was still hurt in a way that could not be fixed because of Matthew and now I was confused because of Sebastien.

I hated Sebastien for this single time because he was acting like Matthew and it confused me. I hated being confused because it made me feel both weak and unknowing. Plus, I'm the kind of person who wants to be on top of things, sort of know what people are going to say before they say it. Right now though, I had no clue what Sebastien was going to say and I was worried he didn't like me at all and that I had made a mistake. I just had to know all the answers to all of the many questions flooding throughout my mind.

"Why won't you kiss me back? Don't you like me?" I asked him holding back any emotion from my voice so that it remained even.

"It's not that I don't like you, I in fact like you very much, it's just that you're to be my queen and it would not be right for me to like you because I'm just a lowly butler. A simple servant like me would never be allowed love someone as beautiful and powerful as you Victoire." He said sincerely.

"Well what I say goes and so if you want to love me then you are allowed to. And Sebastien, you aren't just a lowly butler, you're my guardian, the one person that understands me and can sense my feeling above all others'. Anyway, just don't get to carried away with trying to please me because you're going to have to work hard to get me to love you back. And that is no easy task." I said with a grin.

"Well then, I'll try my best Victoire." He chuckled.

After that he continued walking down the hall and brought me to my room. When we made it into my room he laid me down on the large Queen sized bed. Looking up at him, I suddenly wanted him to stay with me as I slept. As he was about to leave I whispered "Sebastien will you stay with me until I fall asleep?" Then after that he came and sat in his chair beside my bed and I fell right asleep.

An hour later I woke up and Sebastien was still sitting in his chair right beside me. I yawned and asked him what time it was and he simply replied eleven o'clock.

"I suggest that we head to your classes soon Victoire." He purred.

"Classes? Yeah, I guess so…." I replied.

I slowly rolled out of bed and walked over to my closet and opened the doors. When I walked in I went straight to my mirror and fixed my makeup, then brushed my hair and came back out. I politely asked Sebastien to leave then walked into my bathroom across the hall from my room to brush my teeth and use the toilet. When I was finished came out and walked down the hallway to the large metal door where Sebastien was waiting for me.

We slowly made our descent down the long staircase. When we reached the bottom he took me through the door on the right outside. I wondered why he took me outside instead of to my classes, but then again I didn't even know where they were myself. Outside the sky was grey blue and the air was cool a mere 60 degrees or less. Interestingly enough the weather here was exactly to my liking, right on the dot actually. Sebastien and I walked down a tiny tree covered path, the autumnal leaves quietly crunching under our feet. He then spoke.

"Victoire I'm sad to say it but because of how powerful you are the school was put at the corner of the grounds to keep the other students safe if you were ever to go berserk. So, we will be heading over to the stables to fetch our horses so that we may ride to school instead of walking the whole way. Is that alright with you?" He asked.

"Of course it's alright and I'd love to go horseback riding, but who said I would go berserk?" I asked mischievously.

"No one we just assumed that there was a possibility that you might one day go berserk from power overload or something of the sort."

"Well then stop just assuming things because I can tell you that I won't be going berserk anytime soon, so you can rest assured that everything will be all right." I said with a smile as I jabbed my finger into his chest.

At the end of the path there was a huge dark wooden stable with the fleur de lis at the top of it. I assumed it was my barn. Sebastien went to go fetch his horse and my horse while I went to the tack room to put on a pair of riding pants and get my school bag. The pants were black as usual and my school bag was black with a white fleur-de-lis on it. I put the riding pants on and slung the bag over my shoulder and stuck my school pants inside it then ran out the door in search of Sebastien.

When I found him he had two of the most beautiful and magnificent horses I'd ever seen in my entire life. One was white with a black main and tail and the other was black with a white main and tail both had two red lines on each cheek. I guessed that the black one with the white main and tail was mine and the other was Sebastien's. I'd guessed correctly.

"Can you tell me what her name is?" Sebastien asked.

"Well that's easy, it's Luna."I replied.

"And how did you know that?" Sebastien asked

"I just kind of knew I guess."

"Well now that you're ready we might as well get going."

"Yeah."

Sebastien hoisted me up into the black saddle on Luna's back. The moment I sat on her back a voice filled my head.

'My Queen are you on your way to school today?'

_Yes. _I replied

'Well would you like to see how fast I can go?' The voice asked tauntingly.

Well, why don't we? I asked teasingly.

**Sorry this is soo short, I promise the next chapter will be longer. Read & Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5- Her Majesty's Past Revealed

At that moment Luna's eyes flew open and we took off galloping at full speed in the direction of the school with Sebastien and his horse trailing behind from afar. It was like pure bliss to be riding so fast on a horse. I wished it would never end, but all good things must come to an end, or at least that's what I used to think. As soon as the ride began it ended. After sliding off, Luna reared triumphantly then took off back to the stable. Sebastien's horse did so too after he slid off.

"Where are the horses going?" I asked.

"Back home, where else?"He asked questioningly as he dusted himself off.

"Well the horses in the human world aren't trained to just return to the stable. Normally if they take off like, that you'll never see them again!"

"Well that would suck if our horses were like that because they're two of a kind, Luna and Sol." I'd guessed that Sol was his horse from the minute he said his name.

"What do you mean 'they're two of a kind'?"

"Well, our horses are the only royal demon horses. You see here, the horses are born with personalities that mirror their owners'."

"Really? So Luna's personality is practically exactly like mine?"

"Yes, as does Sol's mirror my own. Sadly, enough they are the only ones of their kind left, well, besides your brother's and sister's."

"Why are they the only ones left?"

"Well… that is, to say…"

"It's okay, I can handle it."

"Okay then. When you were born, you were in line to be the first demon queen. Soon after your birth, you were plagued with Demon Mortelle. It is a sickness that only high ranking demons and demon royalty can contract. Your family usually contracts it once every five rulers and you just happened to be a special case because your father had it before you had been born, so you weren't supposed to get it. Thankfully Uphir, our physician here, was able to mostly clear up your case, but she couldn't completely rid you of it. You see Demon Mortelle is contracted by demons when they are young because their small bodies are too weak to hold all the power that they had gained from their predecessors. The reason why you contracted it was because both your mother, Isabel, and your father were extremely powerful beings. Of course your father, Elathan the king of demons, was stronger, but your mother was the highest ranking female demon. She's the one depicted in the painting on the wall in your room. Do you want me to continue?" He asked politely.

"Yes" I said with a tear in my eye.

"Because you had almost two times more of the amount of power than any of the demon kings before you, you easily contracted the sickness. Because your case was so bad, as I said before, Uphir could not completely cure you, but you were safe for the most part. You might have passed out occasionally, but nothing really bad ever occurred. When you were about eight years old, God had decided that he was bored with the human world and wanted to destroy it so he asked your father if he would aid him. Your father fervently refused saying that if he helped, he wouldn't have any more human souls coming here. This enraged God, he declared war on the demons then left for heaven to make his preparations. The angels who were against god's plans made a pact with us that if we let them stay here in Hell if they would fight alongside us in the war. Some of the humans, the exorcists, also agreed to help us in the war if we saved their world and promised not to hurt any of them or the other humans. These pacts caused a bit of uproar throughout our ranks, but we needed the help so no one could refuse it. About eight years later on a cool October day, only a couple of months after your sixteenth birthday, you were almost completely in control of your powers, when god brought his army of thousands of angels and beasts. You fought most fiercely in the battle rivaling the amount of fight your father put up, but then you met your match, the archangel Gabriel. Just before he struck his finishing blow, your mother jumped in and attacked him with one of her most powerful spells, blinding him temporarily. Just seconds after your mother turned her back to look at you and kiss you on your forehead; Gabriel whipped around and drove his lance through your mother's heart. As you watched your mother's lifeless body fall to the ground and Gabriel teleport himself back to heaven, something in you sort of caused your emotions and demonic flames to click and you went a bit berserk with your powers. So Matthew, being the idiot that he is, thought that if he pushed you even further, then you would be able to unlock all of your hidden powers and strengths and unleash them on god. Not the smartest idea ever…that idiot. I can't believe I even let him get that close to you…" He trailed off, staring silently at the brownish green grass below our feet.

"Yeah, you've got that right…, but did you just say that I was the queen of demons and that this place we are in is called Hell?" I asked.

"Yes, well, you are in line to be the queen, but you have not yet been crowned the queen, and yes we are in a place that has been called Hell."

That surprised me quite a bit, but I quickly regained my composure and asked Sebastien to continue on with the story, stuttering only slightly.

"If you insist, well, where was I? Ah, yes. So Matthew pushed you to your fullest power, hell bent on teaching God that what he was doing was completely unjust. That was when everything went awry." He shook his head in disbelief.

"Apparently because of the sickness still left lingering in your system and the amount of power you were using at the time flowing together, they mixed in and caused your demonic flames to go completely wild. The entire battle came to a standstill as everyone turned to watch your flames slowly disintegrate your inner power to nothingness as you screamed in pain… everyone except your father. Your father, in his human form, ran over to you and fell to his knees before your lifeless, unmoving body. He picked you up and held you in his arms with a look of pure terror and sadness on his face. His eyes widened as your vibrant red eyes turned pale gray, the symbol of death. It was like some sad scene from a movie in which the main character dies and her best friend holds her in his arms mourning her death. Well, your father was kind of like your best friend… you two were like the same person just split in two… humph…" Slowly a sincere smile of remembrance spread across his face as if he were reminiscing on the past.

"He stood, you in his arms, still staring down into your eyes as if he were willing you back to life. In the distance all of your beasts could be heard moaning and grieving because of your tragic end. With the ashes from the battle on his hand, your father drew but one fleur de lis upon your forehead then kissed it and whispered 'Please, try to forgive me, my daughter.' He looked up straight into my eyes and in a sincere whisper said 'Take care of my precious daughter, for one day; she shall become both this world's ruler and savior.' The battlefield remained silent, but then your father used _The Chant_. The Chant of Mass Destruction or so it has been called."

"What's the Chant of Mass Destruction?" I asked in a small quivering voice that was very unlike my own.

"It's the most powerful spell any demon king could possibly hope to use. It's kind of like a last resort spell. The only problem is that, when used, the spell lowers the demon's power exponentially at the time and teleports every living royal demon who has a place on the throne to… well, I'm not too sure where. All I know is that those who denounced their positions on the throne weren't teleported because your family members Malphas, Eurynomous, and Artemis weren't. "

"Wait, did you say they denounced their positions? Why would they do that?"

"Well, Malphas wanted to be the chairman of this school for some odd reason." He said gesturing to the building that stood next to us.

"And Artemis was very skilled at archery, so she decided she would teach it at the school. I actually think she's your teacher for archery."

"Ah, and um, Eurynomous, for some reason, his hobby is feeding on the dead, so we presume he is traveling around Hell eating dead people and demons."

"Um, okay that's a little weird." I said with an odd look on my face.

"Yes, he's one of your weirder siblings, but you always loved him and you'll see why if you ever meet him. Anyway, after your father used the chant, it had been discovered that all of the royal demon horses had been teleported too. The only ones that are left are Artemis's, Malphas', Eurynomous', mine, and yours, but ours are special because they too share the bond of guardianship unlike the others of their kind. The other outcomes of your father's spell were innumerable deaths and injuries on the opposing side's forces. So many that it actually forced God and his surviving followers to retreat. For the next two years, most of our efforts were put into rebuilding the castle and the disposing of the bodies and debris from the battle. Of course everyone mourned yours and your mother's deaths, especially Luna and Jack, and the rest of your beasts too. Then one day about nine years later everything your father had said and what had happened that day clicked in my mind and I realized that you weren't actually dead. What had truly happened that day was that your soul escaped your body just after Matthew had pushed you to your full power and your power mixed with your sickness. It had found its way to the human world where you were thus reborn into the form you are in now. I still had no clue of how I would find you, but then one night I had a dream about you and it had told me everything I needed to know. Apparently my dreams can tell me things about you because we're partners according to the guardian Erebus. After that, I reluctantly sent Matthew to your middle school to watch over you because he was the only one at the time who was able to travel between all three of the worlds. I think my favorite reaction of yours to his bluntness was when he told you that your friend was weird and you slammed his fingers in your locker. You have no clue of how long I made fun of him for it." He laughed quietly to himself.

"Sebastien, would you tell me the story of how I met you?" I asked politely. Just then a bell tolled lazily in the distance. _Really_? I mean come on that was _so _untimely.

"Oh, I'm sorry Victoire, but that story will have to wait for another day. Now we must go have you change then get you to class." He said a tad bit impatient.

"You know you can stop calling me by my formal name. Just call me Tori." I told him as we hurried down the black stone path up to the colossal castle like building.

We hurried in the big wooden door and he urged me down the otherwise normal hallway. It actually looked like just about any normal school besides the obvious wealthier look to it. The ceiling was made of some kind of darkish brown type of wood. The walls were made of white stone for the top half and some kind of black marble. There were no lockers on them so I guessed we just carried around our stuff everywhere like I did in high school in the human world. The floor was of some other kind of black marble also. The arches above the doors were my favorite, they were made of black wood and there were different symbols carved into each. Sebastien and I stopped at one of the doorways and I looked up. There was a female demon carved into it. I'd guessed it was the girls' bathroom and I'd guessed correct. Sebastien threw a bag with my pants and a pair of shoes into my hands then pushed me in.

"Sebastien, no one should know who I am right?" I called out to him.

"That is correct." He answered.

I felt so relieved. I seriously hated to have a big fuss over me. I quickly opened one of the stall doors in the bathroom walked in and locked it behind me. Quickly, I switched my riding pants for my black slacks for school and put on my stylish heels then ran out to one of the mirrors to put my lipstick on. It was black as night, just the way I liked it. After I was finished I unfastened the back on a choker that I had found in the bag and put it around my neck. It was black satin with a little onyx jeweled string hanging from the middle and at the end of that string was a black fleur de lis pendant. The rest of the way around the choker was made up of shiny strings of onyx interlacing with one another. I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt even more pretty then I had five minutes ago and it delighted me, but it was the kind of delight that was fleeting. Like when you get an A on a test. I t doesn't last forever. After that, I walked out into the hallway to look for Sebastien, but he was nowhere to be seen. Then a small black raven landed lightly on my shoulder and I realized it was him.

"You never cease to amaze me." I said with a grin on my face while shaking my head.

'_Oh, this is only the beginning my dear_' He whispered in my mind with a somewhat mischievous look on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7- Her Majesty's Past First Change

As I continued down the hallway he walked me through my class schedule. For homeroom I had my sister Artemis's room. Then for first period, I stayed there and took archery class. Second period I had Demon History with an Irish demon who went by the name of Aiden. Third period I had Music class with a male demon named Murmur or Art class with a male demon named Tirage depending on the color day. Fourth period I had Magic class with a male demon named Magus. Fifth period, I had summoning class with a female demon named Lilith. Sixth period, I had taming class also with Lilith. Seventh period I had lunch. Eighth period I had marksmanship class with a male demon named Dante. It was going to be a long first day.

I walked into Artemis's room; it was like a jungle full of wildlife and things of the sort. By a huge tree in the middle of the room all of the other students sat on black wooden benches and Artemis herself on a black wooden throne like chair. The moment I saw her all of my old familiarities with her before I died returned to me. She looked quite like me except for the fact that she looked a few years older, had wavy light brown hair and no lowlights.

I cleared my throat with a small, but sincere smile on my face and she looked up from some papers she was writing on in her lap. The other students also halted their socializing and turned to see the intruder that was me. Just then out of nowhere Artemis's face lit up and she sprang up out of her chair like a gazelle and bolted towards me with a huge smile on her face. When she reached me, she caught me up in a huge bear hug and in my ear whispered 'I knew you weren't dead. I missed you so much Tori. Oh, yes and none of the students know of your true identity so try to act like any normal demon would. In a few minutes I'll have everyone turn into their normal forms. Just do as Lukanatian tells you.' Not that I knew how a normal demon acted or how to turn into my normal demon form. She released me then turned to the other students. Some were extremely pale like me, possibly demons. Some were also a bit tan like Matthew who Lukanatian had told me was an angel, they were also possibly angels. There were others too; they smelled like humans.

"Okay class, we have a new student starting here today. Her name is Tori and yes she is one of the demons. Please try your best to treat her nicely. Now everyone go find a place in the forest and shed your disguises." Artemis said in a loud, but womanly voice.

All of the students got up and ran into the forest except for the ones that smelled like humans. They just sat there and continued talking. Lukanatian nudged my chin with his head and I turned to look at him.

'In the back of the forest in the classroom there is a secluded room. That is where you shall change your form. Now let us go.'

I wondered what the change would be like as I ran through the trees. Man, it had to be an acre long classroom at least. I really hoped that the change would be complete bliss because if it wasn't the trip would so not be worth it. When we got to the room Lukanatian handed me a little key which he had obtained somewhere along the way. I put it in the lock and turned it to the left and the door clicked open. I slowly walked in with the key in my hand and locked it from the inside as Lukanatian told me then looked around the room. There was but a small mattress in the middle with black sheets covering it. It was only big enough for one person. Slowly I lay down on my stomach and took my vest and shirt off as Lukanatian told me. Then, Lukanatian hopped down to the floor still in his raven form and, in a swirling cloud of blackness, changed into his human form. He then asked me to watch what he did and so I did. Slowly, he released all the tension in his body and he began to change. His ears grew pointier, his hair grew a bit longer, his teeth sharpened, large feathery raven wings grew out of slits in his uniform in the back, and a feathery raven tail poked out from underneath his coat. He looked magnificent.

"Did you see how I released all the tension in my body and cleared my mind?" He asked in a deeper, more conniving voice than usual.

"Um yeah, kind of." I said with uncertainty.

"Alright then I'll help you." He replied.

Slowly, I let my mind go blank and all the tension from my body disappear. That was when the pain started. At first it was just a little like the aching from my ears stretching out and from my teeth sharpening, but when it got to the wings, I went mad with pain. I could feel the slits being sliced open by my own body, but could do nothing about it. All I could do was cry out in pain while Lukanatian frantically tried to calm me down. It was like an unending fire was lit upon my back and there was no way to put it out, then, it vanished. Only now, It started up again just below the small of my back, and this time it burned so much it felt cold. It felt like I'd been screaming for hours, but it stopped abruptly.

I turned and looked at Lukanatian, and he had almost no shirt left. Apparently I'd let my demonic flames loose. He just smiled at me then opened his eyes and looked around.

"That was a lot better than I thought it would be." He announced proudly.

"But, I must go get dressed in new clothes and I'll be back. Oh and I fixed your clothes so that your wings will fit through." Then he vanished into a cloud of thick black smoke.

I looked around and found my clothes then put them back on. Looking into the mirror on the wall I examined my new features. As I looked into it, I watched my shoulder length hair grow all the way down to the small of my back, my eyes change from violet to red and my nails turn black and pointed. Then I took a minute to look at the other additions. My wings were midnight black and were small, only able to reach around and cover my face, but they were so soft, even softer than the angel prison guard's wings were. My wings were very full in feather at the top and long strands of feather reached out at the bottom, they were perfect for me.

Then I wrapped my tail around the front of my body to get a better look at it. It was like that of a wolf's tail. It was able touch the floor behind me and had long strands of hair-like, black fur and the tip of it was made up of blood red fur and a few red slashes going down the middle. It was much prettier than I'd expected it to be. It matched my personality perfectly. After looking for another couple of seconds; I'd decided that I'd leave the room and rejoin the class.

Upon exiting the door I was surrounded by a group of one angel, one demon, and one exorcist. They were all girls too. I kind of guessed where this was going because I could tell by the looks on their faces that they were not here to complement.

"Humph, and the teacher thinks your special." The angel in the middle with long blonde hair said in hissing voice.

"You probably can't even fly with those wings, what a pity." The angel said again. She was one to talk. Her wings were like that of an owl's and so was her tail. They looked extremely flimsy.

"You're probably one of the ugliest, lowest demons I've ever saw in my life." She laughed.

At that point I was about ready to punch her. I didn't even care if she was an angel, she was just plain out being a stuck up little brat. Just before I could raise my hand against her another angel walked up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Leave her alone Ahnia." He said in a raspy, quiet voice.

She turned around and looked at him then looked back at me then flipped her hair and walked off with her minions in tow behind her.

"My name's Senri. It's nice to meet you." He said while turning around to face me.

His wings were like what you'd picture an angel's to actually look like. They were long and white, and just about touched the floor behind him. He himself had short pinkish grayish colored hair and jade colored eyes. It was weird, but then again was anything ever normal here?

Something small landed on my shoulder and brushed my cheek, I knew instantly it was Lukanatian without looking. Senri stared at him curiously for a second, and then shook his head as if he was dismissing some odd thought.

"He likes you quite a lot, now doesn't he?" He said with a tiny smile.

"I guess so." I said kind of awkwardly.

Then, Lukanatian, being the kind of demon he is, burst out laughing and fell off of my shoulder into the greenery beside my feet. Apparently he thought my answer was funny. Senri looked at me and laughed a bit.

"So, he's a demon in his beast form, I presume?" He asked while still laughing a bit.

"Actually, yes and he finds you extremely funny." I answered.

Then in the midst of the silence, a hawk's call cut through the air surprising both me and Lukanatian.

"Oh, that means we have to return to the teacher." Senri said matter-of-factly. He took off in the direction of the teacher calling out to me to come on.

'Why don't you try out your new body Tori?' Lukanatian said in my mind.

I nodded and stretched my arms and legs. Then, extending my claws, I leaped on to the nearest tree and climbed my way up its tall lumbering trunk. I felt like a feather, like I had almost nothing to weigh me down. This must have been what birds felt like. When I neared the top I couldn't help myself but let out a low pitched rumbling roar, causing all the birds in the trees to flee their resting spots. Caught up in the moment, I allowed my wings to spread and feel the cool manmade breeze that wafted through the room. I, for once in my life, felt natural and relaxed. My tail swished happily behind me as I sat at the top of the tree, feeling like the queen of the world. Well, I would technically be the queen of this world after my coronation. Not that I had any clue when that was, but I didn't care, because now was my time.

Slowly, I arched my back and took off jumping from tree to tree towards the classroom, my body slicing through the air. I was like an arrow just launched from a bow. I felt like some kind of bird-wolf hybrid and it was blissful. It wasn't the kind of spur of the moment bliss either. This time, it was everlasting, only to be stopped when I wanted it to be and that would be never. Lukanatian had disappeared from my shoulder, so I threw my head back and howled as loud as I could, letting all my feelings pour out of me in the simple wolf-like gesture.

When I neared the middle of the forest, an uneasy feeling settled into the lowest pits of my stomach.

Apparently these were my instincts kicking in.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Her Majesty's First Reunion

Instinctively, I looked in the direction of where the uneasy feeling was coming from. Using my demonic power, I found the enemy and hopped down from the treetop to a lower branch near the ground without a sound. There, in a little opening in the trees was a female demon that looked quite familiar and sitting right in front of her was a male angel with his holy spear ready in one hand and her neck in the other. Lukanatian lay beside the angel in his demon form, clearly unconscious. I slowly glided down from my branch and flapped my wings quietly.

In my demon form, I got down on all appendages, the feathers on my wings and fur on my tail bristling. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then ran with demonic speed extending my arm towards the angel's heart and ran it right through him. He dropped his spear and as I pulled my hand out of his heart, he slowly dropped to the ground, releasing the demon's neck. Everything that had just occurred within the few seconds had felt like a routine to me. Approach quietly, kill swiftly and clean my weapon. Slowly I reached my hand up to my mouth as if I couldn't control it and licked the dripping blood off of it. It tasted intoxicating, almost like alcohol would to an alcoholic. I finished cleaning my hand then looked up at the demon standing in front of me and realized it was Gianna, my best friend who had been killed first by the outcast that had sent me to the prison.

"Gianna is that you?" I asked surprised.

"Yes, my name is Gianna, but how do you know me?" She asked cautiously like I was going to attack her.

"Gianna, it's me, your best friend. The one who you promised you would always stay by's side." I really hoped she'd remember me and didn't think I was a complete lunatic after what she'd just witnessed.

"Tori as in Tori my best friend from high school?" She asked unbelieving.

"Yup." I said with a wide grin.

She ran to me and embraced me in a huge bear hug.

"You wouldn't believe what I've been through since I died." She said exasperated.

"And you wouldn't believe what I've been through."

"You look so much cooler! I love the lowlights!" She said looking me up and down.

"And I wasn't cool in high school?" I asked playfully.

"No, no you looked awesome in high school, but you look even cooler now."

"I was just kidding, but look at you. You look much cooler yourself."

I looked her up and down she had the same blonde hair only now it was a bit darker. Her wings were like those of a bat and each one was almost the size of her. Her tail was like that of a husky's, and it was silver, full and bristly. Her nails were also sharpened and black and her eyes were the prettiest color of maroon.

"Um, Tori, who is this guy, I mean he's cute and all, but he's kind of unconscious and in the middle of the room at that."

"I'll be right back!" I yelled as I picked Lukanatian up and dragged him to the room in the back of the classroom. I opened the door and stuck him on the bed, then left to go find Gianna and return to the rest of the class. Goodness, he was heavy! He was just going to have to find me when he woke up. Who needs him anyway? I handled myself just fine against that angel, he didn't even know I was there, but still I mean it had to count for something.

On all fours, I ran as fast as I could to find Gianna. When I returned to the spot where we had been talking earlier, Gianna was nowhere to be found. Out of nowhere, a small husky plopped down on my back and I turned my head instinctively to investigate. It was Gianna in her beast form. She was a small silver and white husky with black paws and dots just above each of her eyes. She was incredibly cute.

'Hey Tori, can you carry me?' She said in a tiny voice inside my head.

I nodded my head, smiling, and then we were off. I raced with her on my back through the trees. She was holding on for dear life onto my shirt, I guessed I was faster than I thought. When we neared an opening out of the forest, I jumped for a tree branch high above in the tallest tree. I landed quietly and looked out from my perch.

All the angels and demons were in their natural forms, some prettier than others. Artemis's wings looked just like mine, except on a much larger scale. And her tail looked exactly like mine, besides the obvious difference in color. Hers was smoky gray and mine was black and red. I guess we really were related. I'd collected from the conversation that they were going to send a search party for Gianna and I, but then the blonde from earlier butted in. Ahnia was her name.

"She's probably just ashamed of how small her wings are." She said matter-of-factly.

Now that was just to piss me off. I thought I'd get back at her for that one, and so I would. I arched my back, Gianna still hanging on and burst from the tree like a spear while roaring loudly at Ahnia. She screamed and I swear to that evil God, she almost went in her pants. I stopped short and she fell off the bench onto the dirt causing the entire class to burst into laughter, even her sidekicks. Then Gianna sitting beside me in her puppy form howled with laughter. I did the same in my demon form and everyone stopped and looked at me. Apparently I looked special to them.

"So, I guess you and your new friend have been having fun while we worried about you?" Artemis asked a bit ticked off.

"Well, I knew Gianna before know, and we had fun on the way back, but…" I trailed off at the end, my face turning grim.

"You might want to bring a cleanup crew in." Gianna finished for me.

"Why?" Artemis asked with a confused look on her face.

"Because an angel, not an angel from here, a bad one was attacking Gianna and I kind of killed it and left a bit of a mess." I said.

"I wanna see!" The class exclaimed.

Everyone began to rise from their seats and I took off ahead of them, scenting out my kill. When I'd found it, I'd come to a halt and sat like a dog would behind it as if I were presenting it to my master. When everyone got close to it, they all gasped in surprise. It was a bloody mess. The puncture wound that my hand had made in its heart bubbled with flowing blood.

Artemis kind of stared back and forth from me to it then pulled out some kind of whistle made of bone and blew into it. Immediately after, a huge black hole opened up in the wall and who I assumed was Eurynomous stepped out of it. He was extremely gorgeous; in fact if he wasn't my brother and didn't eat dead people, I might have married him. He had straight, but edgy black chin length hair and eyes that shone like rubies. What I noticed most about him though was his wings, they looked exactly like both Artemis's and my wings, except they were slightly larger than Artemis's. The wing type must have been a family trait. His tail was like that of a coyote's, sandy brown, covered with black streaks and small, but full. I looked up at his face; he looked as if he were about twenty four years old.

I heard some of the students whispering that he was going to eat the angel and saying that they were going back because they didn't want to watch. Slowly, Artemis filed everyone back to the front of the classroom where the benches sat and left me alone with him. Casually, he walked over to me and placed a hand on my hair, ruffling it a bit. I found a sense of familiarity in the gesture and laughed a little.

"I missed you so much dear sister." He said softly.

"As I did you dear brother." I replied in a quiet voice.

"Oh no…" He whispered.

"What?" I asked cautiously.

"You have a cut; let me get it for you." He leaned in and carefully licked the cut I had received on the way here. It didn't feel weird having my brother lick my cheek like this. It felt more so natural. It was almost like we were puppies and he was cleaning my cheek out of pure impulse. He looked up at me with a sad look on his face after he was finished.

"What is it brother?" I asked quietly.

"You must get back to your class, I will miss you…" He trailed off.

"You can visit me at the castle." I told him.

"Yes, but I will miss you. Good bye dear sister."

"Good bye dear brother." I said.

I whined softly as I watched him pick up the body, then clean up the blood and leave through the dark hole he had come out of. As I ran through the trees on all fours, I lifted my head and began to howl of loneliness. My call was answered by Artemis's own. At least she understood how I felt. As I burst out of the clearing I stopped and stood up.

Instantly, I felt a sense of impending doom nestle itself on my shoulders, and it wasn't the kind that you get when you forget your homework or something. It was the kind that you get when you know that today could be your death day. My head instantly snapped to the door as I watched at least ten angels walk through, and they weren't the good ones either. The first question that came to my mind was 'where are the other students?' I quickly dismissed the thought. They didn't matter right now because the angels were slowly getting closer and they didn't look to happy.

To a bystander, the whole occurrence would have looked like a bunch of dogs ganging up on and attacking a lone wolf, a cowardly act. Things were different in this world though. In this world, it didn't matter what number of foes I was facing. I could take them all down. They might have had the advantage of numbers, but I had the advantage of both skill and power.

I scanned the area, searching for a weapon, and spotted a wooden bow and quiver full of black arrows. I slunk back down to the ground on all fours and ran for the weapon. I picked them up in my mouth and sneakily ran back. I stood and quickly fastened the quiver onto my back, positioned my fingers accordingly as I did the other day and let my mind and soul flow into the weapon.

This, this was my life, an unending game of cat and mouse, just with the cat being chased by many weak, feeble mice. It was my job to kill them and so I would. It was like this back in high school, except I didn't kill people, I just messed them up a bit. It's been like this for as long as I can remember. The one new thing was that I was killing people, and frankly, it felt good. I pulled the string back and, within a matter of seconds, all of the angels had arrows with shadows dripping off of them sticking through each and every one of their hearts out their backs. All of the angels started coughing up blood one by one and one by one each of them fell to their knees then onto their stomachs, causing their blood to splatter onto my clothes and face as I stared coldly at them.

Without word, my frown slowly twisted up into a full length sadistic grin. My tongue ran out along my lips and found the warm blood of my kill. It tasted bland and much like water. I frowned. Slowly, I looked down and realized I was covered in water, not blood. It made no sense.

None what so ever…


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Her Majesty's Demonstration

From the door, clapping and cheers erupted. I turned my head and confusedly looked over to see my classmates and sister walking in, most with awe-filled looks on their faces, some with looks of fear on their faces. The ones with fear on their faces were half of the exorcists in class. I knew because the human smell surrounded them like smoke. There were other classmates such as Ahnia and her little posse, who had their faces caught in sneers too, but most of them looked at me with amazement. I kind of liked it.

"I see your skills have not changed Tori. Well, welcome to the class." Artemis said just loud enough so I could hear it with a kind smile plastered onto her face.

"I guess not and thank you." I said proud of myself. Then Ahnia had to step in and make everything all about her once again.

"Those clones had to have been defective, because there's no way she took down all ten of them in just three seconds. I was wondering why you were giving her ten instead of the regular three. It's probably because they were all defective and you wanted to make her look really strong. I have you all figured out Artemis." She said in her obnoxiously annoying voice.

Artemis snapped her fingers and another one of those creepy angel clones materialized out of the water in the air right next to her.

"Does this look defective to you?" She asked Ahnia while tapping her foot impatiently. She never could stand being accused of cheating.

Ahnia looked the clone up and down, as if scrutinizing every single point of its body and walked slowly around it a couple of times then stopped. She turned to Artemis and averted her eyes.

"I don't see anything, but it makes no sense. I'm the third best in the class and it took me a whole minute to take care of my three enemies." She said confusedly.

"So she's all bark and no bite?" I asked the class. Many laughed in return. Ahnia growled and arched her wings as though she was going to attack me and the whole class fell silent. Even Artemis was stunned.

"You wanna fight you little egotistical brat?" I asked.

"Because I'll take you outside and mess you up a bit if you push me. So, don't go trying to be the queen of the class because you're not anymore. I am now, so back off." I growled at the end and she shrank back. Then the students started cheering and Gianna ran over and high fived me, even Senri smiled a bit. Apparently I was the new class idol thanks to my little speech.

The rest of the class blew over in a haze of target and speed practice; of course I got to sit out for most of the time, so I mostly helped the other students.

Second period, I had Demonic History with Aiden. For most of the time, he reviewed what had happened before I had changed into a human during the war of the demons and angels. I actually found it very interesting. Screw American History, I'm awesome at Demonic History. I even actually took some notes. At the end of class I talked with Aiden and in his thick Irish accent, he told me to tell him if I ever needed anything. I agreed then left for third period.

Third period, because it was white day I had music with Murmur. He was very quiet, but nice. During my first music class, we mostly practiced our singing and skills at reading sheet music. Murmur even commented, he said that I had a most wonderful singing voice and many of my classmates thought so too. I knew I had an okay voice, but I didn't think it was that good, I guess it was. Well, who knew? I mean everyone hears their voice differently than it sounds to others.

Fourth period, I had magic class with a guy by the name of Magus. Everyone automatically assumes that a magic teacher would be some old and decrepit man or woman, but Magus was the exact opposite of that. He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old and had shiny silver hair with black ends that went past his shoulders to his waist. Atop his head were the cutest little wolf ears that were silver with black tips just like his hair. For some odd reason, I had the urge to touch them.

I'd guessed that he was a half-blood, a half demon half demonic beast because I knew from history class that all half demons had their ears on top of their heads. I'd learned that they had played a very important role in the war of the angels and demons as warriors on the front line.

Before class, I told Magus that I wished to keep my true identity a secret and he complied and told me that I could sit out whenever I felt that it was necessary. Just then, Lukanatian, in his raven form, flew in and landed on my shoulder, clearly ticked off.

"Aw, Lukanatian did she do something to hurt your feelings?" Magus playfully teased and Lukanatian's eyes lit up like fire.

"Do you know Lukanatian?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, why wouldn't I know my own cousin?" He said narrow eyed and with a slight smile.

'Ugh, he never changes' Lukanatian whispered in my mind. Apparently Magus couldn't hear him.

"Just get over yourself, you're not perfect." I said sternly to him then glanced back at Magus. He just smiled and laughed a little.

"This is quite awkward, it feels like I've never met you before, but it was only sixteen years ago that we used to hang out. I'm still not used to the whole ordeal over refreshing your memories." He said frankly.

"I really don't think too many people are, to tell you the truth." I said with a sigh. He chuckled softly.

"Well, do not fret, for I shall get used to it my darling." He said in a voice that dripped with honey. Heat flooded to my cheeks into a full on blush and Lukanatian cawed angrily at Magus. Magus raised his eyebrows and put his hands up as if to say 'I give'. It was cute how Lukanatian became jealous when any guy talked to me like that, but it was a tad bit annoying.

"You know… you might have a bit of competition with your dear cousin." I said narrow-eyed and mischievously to him.

He narrowed his eyes and in my mind said 'Humph, he's nothing.' He was clearly jealous.

The bell tolled lazily and all of the students leisurely walked to their desks and sat down in their seats. The desks were like those in the science rooms at my high school in the human world, long and black with two people to a desk. The front one was a one person desk, so I decided to take that seat.

Soon after, Ahnia walked in and with a look of pure outrage, loudly cleared her throat.

"Is there something I can do for you Ahnia?" I asked, a bit stuck-up sounding.

Her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, you can get out of my seat you idiot." She said clearly pissed off. I responded in the only way I could, knowing angels.

"Just shut the hell up you damn sacrilegious angel." I'd never really allowed myself to curse aloud before, but it felt good to.

All the angels gasped and stared gaping at me like I was some kind of two headed monster. Then Lukanatian cawed almost as if he was chuckling. I knew why they were staring at me the whole time, but it was weird to have all their eyes on me.

"Yeah, you heard me. I said she was a sacrilegious angel and don't you all agree." I asked expectantly. From the class many forms of yes arose. It made me feel good to know that I wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"You are the lowest ranking and foulest of all the demons. You're truly a pitiful person might I add." She said almost in a half laugh.

"Oh yeah? Then prove that I'm the lowest ranking demon. Come at me." I barked.

"Maybe I will!" She yelled as she raised her hand to strike my face.

Just as her hand was supposed to make contact with my face, Magus caught her arm in a death grip and I vanished from my place and reappeared a few feet back using my demonic speed. By the devil, I was truly gifted. Well, I was.

Magus's eyes were narrowed and his head was tilted down toward the floor. Ahnia's arm started turning pale purple; Magus looked out the corner of his eyes up at Ahnia and smiled, then his eyes and smile widened as he tilted his head to the side towards her.

"You know, I never really liked you. You always followed me around like some lovesick kitten and quite frankly it pissed me off, but laying a hand on my darling Tori just crossed the line you damn angel. Do you think you almost hurting one of my dear friends would be enough provocation for me to kill you if the case ever went to court and I had to justify my actions?" He asked evilly.

His teeth and nails sharpened to points and he threw his head back and laughed. It was the kind of laugh that sent chills down your spine and kept you up all night. It was the kind of laugh that you only used when you were a wild beast hunting down your prey and you wanted to frighten it to death before you snapped its neck. It was truly frightening.

Just before he could make a move, my voice sliced through the air like an assassin's knife "Magus, learn to control yourself. It's not like she was going to kill me, now snap the hell out of it, we are in the middle of class here. God, you damn idiot." I yelled.

I ran over to him and took him by the shirt collar and pulled him out the door. Once we were out there he apologized fervently and said he was only trying to protect me. I told him that he was supposed to be treating me like any other student and he said that he would from then on, which I totally didn't believe.

After that we returned to the classroom and as we walked in I heard a few whispers around the room that just quite ticked me off. They consisted of things like 'I bet they're in a relationship' and 'it's so scandalous!' I then made Magus explain to the class that we were childhood friends, dismissing the thought of a couple relationship almost all together. People still had their thoughts though.

"Ok class; let's get to work and, Ahnia, try to behave this time." Magus announced. Everyone found a seat and sat down then stared intently from Ahnia to me to Magus and back. It was kind of awkward. Magus noticed it too.

"Because Tori is new to this class, why don't we show her what we do in this class? Ready everyone? Ok, Fire." His voice cracked out like a whip and immediately the students obeyed, even Ahnia.

They stood up and began whispering appeals to some unknown being and one by one, each of them had a fire lit in their hands. Some were red, some purple and some bright white and yellow. The angels had either bright white and yellow or red, while the demons had purple or red and the exorcists had just red. Magus's flame was different; it was dark purple with a tinge of red to the core of it. That wasn't the only thing different though, he was able to summon it within seconds while the students took at least half a minute each. He really was fit to be a teacher.

"Water." Magus called out.

Immediately after, their flames extinguished and small spheres of water appeared in their hands. This time they all looked the same.

"Air." Magus yelled.

Upon yelling the word, a cool breeze wafted through the room blowing my newly lengthen hair into my face as I watched silently.

"Earth." Magus roared.

Nothing could be seen at first, but then as the students squeezed in their hands slowly, dents began forming in the floor all around the classroom. As the students released their fists, the dents began filling back up to their previous state.

"So as you can see, we've studied fire, water, air and earth so far. How about you try fire as your first element Tori." Magus told me.

"Um, Sure." I said out loud.

I put my face down towards the floor and closed my eyes, concentrating. I tried to think of what to say, but couldn't think of anything at first. Then, out of nowhere, I knew what to say.

"I humbly appeal to the demon of fire Sinistre, lend me your power and you shall be rewarded." I yelled and as I finished the last word, blue flames manifested in the palms of my hands.

They were beautiful, unlike any of the other students' flames and felt warm. It was the kind of warm you felt when you were truly happy or laying in the arms of the one you loved. It felt welcoming.

I looked up and realized the whole class was staring at me. Again. Many gasped in surprise as they looked back and forth from me to the flames. I blinked in confusion, and then dismissed my flames with the flick of my wrists. They kept staring at me, then out of nowhere they all started swarming me and saying that I was so cool and that what I just did was really cool. I had no idea why though.

After the whole ordeal and I demonstrated the rest of the elements, class was over and I had actually received invites from some people to sit with them at lunch. Magus pulled me off to the side and told me that they were staring at me because blue flames are very rare in the demon world.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10- Her Majesty's Partner(s)?

Next period was summoning class with Lilith. As I headed down the hallway, Gianna and I talked, Lukanatian still on my shoulder. She said something about blue flames being a sign of demon royalty and I stopped in my tracks. What would she think if I were royalty? Would she still want to be my friend? Our group of friends was never the popular group, but we liked to think we were just a bit. The one thing that Gianna never could stand was to be treated like she meant nothing. How would she feel if I had all of the attention and she had none? I mean, of course I would give her attention, but would that be enough? That was what bothered me the most.

"Me, royalty? There's no way I could be royalty." I said to her trying to dismiss her thoughts of me being royalty. I hated lying to my friends, but I would if it kept them safe.

"Well, you always were a bit special." She said with smile.

"Very funny." I said feeling guilty for lying to her.

"I'm not talking about in the head; I'm talking about the feeling around you. The feeling of supremacy, distinguish and valor. That's the reason why you're my friend, because you're unique in your own way and don't let people talk down to you. Plus, you were the first person who ever invited me somewhere. You're the kind of friend everyone wishes for." She said with awe. It made me feel even guiltier then I already had.

When we reached the classroom, Gianna and I took seats next to each other in the front of the class. When I looked up, I noticed Lilith at the front of the room she was beautiful. She had long pale silver hair and magenta colored eyes that looked at me softly. She called me up to her desk and I quickly got up.

"Hello Tori. Has your day been well?" She asked.

"Good, maybe. I don't really know." I replied.

"Well, that's alright. So welcome to summoning class. Today, watch the other students then try your best to do the same. If you wish not to participate then just tell me." She said in a kind voice.

"Ok." I told her then I walked silently back to my desk. Geez what was it with the teachers telling me I didn't have to participate?

"What did she tell you?" Gianna asked curiously.

It was quite normal for humans that were turned into demons such as her to be very curious. For, they still possessed the human characteristics that their souls had become attached to during their time in the human world and it was like they were born again and were just children again. Demons like Gianna were known as fledglings because of their newly changed status. Demons such as Lukanatian who was never a human don't usually act that curious, unless it was just a part of their personality to be that way, which for Lukanatian it was. Demons who had never changed into humans like Lukanatian or who had been born as demons then changed and died as humans were called the Shaded Ones. Everyone thought there was no way for a human that was once a demon to return to being a demon.

"Oh, nothing." I simply replied to Gianna, and then continued thinking to myself.

Never once was there a demon that was in quite the same situation as myself, but based on the other two types of demon I would be somewhat more demon like. I would most likely act as though I was any other demon except for the small amount of curiosity that remained in me from my time in the human world. I decided that because I was most likely the only one of my species of demon, that I would give it a name. I cogitated for a few seconds then decided that we would be called the Alpha Purebloods. It was a combination of my former species, a Pureblood and Alpha for my ability to travel between the human and demon worlds. To me, it was quite clever, but I refused to tell anyone for fear of them thinking it was stupid, not that I cared.

Lilith cleared her throat and I broke off from my unrelated thoughts to stare up at her. Apparently the bell had rang while I was lost in my thoughts and everyone had taken their seats.

"Any questions on what I taught you yesterday?" She asked with an open mind.

A few people raised their hands and she answered each of their questions and then told us that everyone was to try their best to summon their beast. She let her knowing eyes rest on me and she conveyed through her eyes that I was to try my best along with all the students, but to wait and watch them before trying.

"Can I go first?" Ahnia asked, a bit impatient.

Apparently, she thought that if I saw her beast first and it was better than my own, I would allow her to be the dominant female in class. Boy was she going to get a rude awakening.

I didn't even have a clue if there was a beast as strong as I was. I mean, I could end up summoning an unknown species of beast to the classroom.

I turned to look at Ahnia as she began to summon her partner. That was what the beasts' true name was. She stood with her summoning paper in hand and whispered a few words to calm herself.

Raising her left arm, Ahnia drug her nails across the skin on her right arm, causing the skin to just barely break. Small beads of the precious crystalline red liquid showed at the marks on her skin and the back of my throat burned with a hunger for it. Yes, I did like blood, I had learned, but I didn't like it has much as Eurynomous, or a succubus. I mean, I was a demon, why wouldn't I like the taste of blood? I held my breath to keep myself from smelling anymore of the intoxicating scent that rose off her arm.

With her small square of paper in her left hand, Ahnia smeared the blood onto it in one quick swipe of her arm. She lowered her head and began rattling off some long random sentence to a heavenly being in a voice that was almost inaudible to my ears. Then, a bright light enveloped her figure entirely and a warm feeling surrounded the class. All of the demons leaned away and hid from the light while the angels and humans leaned toward it. It was a difference of preference and feel.

All demons have a very acute sense of temperature change and something like this felt to us to be around one hundred degrees, so if you didn't like the heat, then this wasn't the best time of your life. For me, because I don't like the heat all that much, it truly disgusted me and felt suffocating. It was bad enough that it was coming from her though.

Slowly, the light dissipated and there stood what looked to be a six foot tall bleach white Pegasus, wings and all. I have to admit, it was good for an angel of her class at the time, but I wasn't that impressed.

"Good work Ahnia." Lilith said quietly, then she asked Ahnia to take a seat with her partner.

"Everyone, now you try yours. Oh, and Tori, you can go last." She announced to the class.

One by one, each type of creature, be it human, demon or angel became enveloped in some kind of light. The demons' color of light was actually more like shadows, seeing as it was black. The angels' color of light was bright white and the humans' colors were between silver and gray.

Slowly each of the lights dissipated and each creature stepped out with a partner either standing, sitting, flying, crawling, or slithering next to them. I watched as Gianna walked out of her light with not one, but three kitsune. Kitsune are fox like Japanese mythical beings that are supposed to be very hard to summon or have as partners and yet here my friend stands with three of them all watching her obediently. As she walked over to me, I noticed that each of the three females had a different symbol in black on their foreheads. A moon, a star or a flame were on each of their heads.

"What are their names?" I asked her wondering if the symbols meant anything.

"Oh, the one with the star is Tiku, the one with the moon is Shey and the one with the flame is Rai." She said happily.

"Oh, thanks Gianna. It's nice to meet you three." I said with a genuine smile. They looked back and forth from me to each other. Then one spoke to me in my mind, it was Shey.

'Is that you my queen?" She asked surprised.

'Yes, but do not let anyone know besides the other fox okay?' I whispered in her mind.

'Yes, your majesty.' She replied.

She and the other two kitsune bowed and then, the four of them, Gianna and her partners walked over to her desk and each took a seat. I inspected the room and came to the realization that I was the last one standing. I looked sheepishly over at Lilith and noticed her partner. It was a jet black snake like dragon and it sat in a tangled coil by her feet watching intently. Lilith noticed me and then smiled sweetly and spoke.

"Okay class, because this is Tori's first time summoning her partner, let's wish her luck." She ordered the class.

"Good luck." Most of them whispered to me in hushed voices, probably tired out from summoning their partners. It was understandable.

"Thanks." I replied in a somewhat cheerful voice.

Lilith handed me a summoning paper and whispered 'use the classroom however you like.' Not that I knew what it meant, but I soon figured out that she was talking about the summoning circle in the middle of the classroom. Only advanced summoners or summoners who had very high level partners could use it, because I was in both of these two categories, I thought that it would be appropriate that I use it; I would do it in style though.

I ripped the paper up in my hand and listened as the whole class gasped at my acts of, what they thought, was defiance. I put the small pieces in the palm of my hand and walked over to Ahnia and blew them in her face, noticing her furious look, then stalked over to the huge summoning circle on the floor. This caused even more gasps to arise from the class. The reactions were my favorite part of my little act of defiance against Ahnia.

I licked my lips as my claws sharpened and drug my nails across my arm causing the blood to flow forth and drip off my arm, pooling on the floor. The other demons in the class looked slightly hungered by the smell, it was usual though because royal blood did taste the best apparently, although I'd never tried it before of course. I raised my bleeding right arm and thrust it in a diagonal motion toward the floor causing the blood to splatter. I put my head down and focused on the floor and began to summon my partner or partners.

"Those who have served me eagerly and lovingly and have remained in my possession during my long absence step forward through the darkness and join me in my world of shadows and death and you shall be rewarded greatly." I whispered fiercely making sure that none of the other students could hear.

Just then a huge cloud of black enveloped me, hiding me from the class and I could hear all of the voices of my partners. There must have been at least one hundred voices, but I could only have the best of the best join me in the classroom.

"Those of you who represent the five strongest come forward and out of the shadows and into my world of shadows and death known as Hell." I called out to the voices with a grin, knowing that the class couldn't hear me.

They quieted down and five shapes manifested one by one around me and slowly came into view. It pleased me to know they were all obedient and this caused blue streaks to appear in the darkness around me. The first one of the beasts to appear was apparently the fifth strongest. He was a snow white dove with black streaks on his wings and his name was Zonri. He flew over and landed on my shoulder then introduced himself. The second one of the beasts to appear was a Siberian tiger and her name was Sabbele. She padded over to my side and sat on her hind legs. I reached a hand down and lovingly pet her head, receiving a deep rumbling purr in response. The third of the beasts to appear was a huge almost all black griffin, her name was Ekeyre. She leisurely strolled over to my other side and relaxed her wings as I whispered a few words to her.

The fourth of the beasts to appear was Jack, my jet black vampragon. He flew over and said hello to me then landed on Ekeyre's back and folded his wings accordingly. The fifth and most powerful of the beasts to appear was none other than Luna, my royal demon horse. She trotted over and whinnied in happiness then allowed me to climb upon her back so that I could rest my legs because frankly, I was tired of all the standing. After all of my partners were assembled, I allowed the cloud of black and blue smoke to vanish so that my presentation could be unveiled. The whole class just sat there eyes wide and mouths gaping until someone started to clap. It was the slow kind of clap that starts off with one person and ends with all of the people. I glanced at Ahnia and noticed that she was just shaking her head back and forth staring at the floor in what I presumed was disbelief.

Out of nowhere someone called out "All her partners have black on them!"

"Oh my G- , I mean that's so awesome. That means she's really strong right?" One of the angels asked.

"That's true. I never thought about it that way." A couple of the students answered each in their own way.

In the first day I'd been to school in Hell, I'd learned a Hell of a lot more than I ever had when I went to school in the human world. One of the things that applied to me most was the color code.

White-fairly powerful

White with Black-pretty powerful

Black- very powerful

Black with blue-powerful and royal

Black with red= exponentially powerful

Black with red and blue= as powerful as can be

I myself actually fit under the last category because during the summoning my magic was black and blue, and though I hadn't seen much of it, there was some red. Truth be told, I knew I was powerful, but I didn't think I was this powerful. I surprised myself to absolutely no end.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Her Majesty's Willing Servant

As the students swarmed around me and my partners, I began to feel a bit dizzy and claustrophobic. I shook my head, trying to dismiss the weird feelings and saw my partners begin to look the same, it annoyed me. I didn't want them suffering along with me because of this little event.

I clenched my fists and saw my nails physically sharpen, drawing blood from my hand causing it to seep to the floor. Sabbele looked up at me as if to ask if it was okay that she cleaned it up and I just barely nodded my head yes. She reached her slender neck down to the ground and quietly purified the mess with her tongue. When she was finished, she silently walked over and tilted her head up to clean my hand as all the students watched mesmerized by my laid back attitude toward her.

Lilith stared a bit shyly insight of what just occurred. She knew that it was perfectly normal for a royal to act so close to their partner, but all creatures were curious.

Apparently most demons, angels, or even humans for that matter, didn't let their partners taste their blood for fear that they might one day kill them for it. I knew that my partners wouldn't because I was to be the queen one day, but the lower class creatures were right to fear their partners at times. My bond between my partners was thick though, we weren't just partners, we were all soul mates destined for each other, handpicked from the pool of souls to be linked together for an eternity known as immortality.

The class began clapping, a bit stunned at first, but then the volume slowly rose. They were amazed at my boldness, but then they all backed up as they looked at the cut on my hand though. It glowed slightly blue then just disappeared as if it had never been there. It glowed blue as in light blue, the color that symbolized royalty. The class again stared and gaped at me as if I had three heads. I would really have to get used to that.

"Um, can I go to the bathroom?" I asked Lilith. She shook her head and I took off at a canter on Luna's back with Sabbele in tow. I needed to clear my mind so I called Ekeyre to me in my mind and sent Sabbele and Luna back. As Ekeyre came out of the classroom and trotted up to me, I wondered why Lukanatian hadn't come to. I soon realized that he knew I wanted to be alone.

Ekeyre slid down on one knee and asked "Would you like a ride Tori?"

I nodded my head and stuck one leg over her neck. She lifted her head and I slid back into a more comfortable position for her and myself. She and I leisurely walked out the door at the front of the school and up the path out of the trees. As soon as we were out she started running slowly at first then faster and faster. She stuck her wings out and we were up in the air and I felt at home. I felt impregnated with the feeling of pure joy and bliss as we circled around the roof several times, but all good things must come to an end.

We descended to the roof and I let her rest for a few minutes as I pondered what was happening in class at the moment. I decide that it was up to me to set things right and so I decided to do that. I once again hopped on Ekeyre and we slowly drifted to the ground. I jumped off and we walked back up to the school. As we drifted down the hallway, I listened to the clip of her talons against the cold black stone, it was currently the only thing that kept me from thinking about what I was about to do.

I stopped just shy of the classroom door and took a deep breath. I knew I would probably have to reveal myself one day, might as well get it over with now. I probably could have done a better job of concealing my true identity, but because my body naturally heals itself with royal demonic flames, it couldn't be helped.

I rounded the corner and stepped in the door. To my surprise, everything looked normal again and it didn't seem like anyone acknowledged me as the queen. I was completely perplexed by the situation. I had no clue as to why none of the students acted like they were even remotely surprised upon my entering. Someone, or rather something, stepped up behind me and put her face by my ear. It was Luna.

'Lilith told them all that it was just a trick.' She told me in my mind.

'Why?' I asked, just a bit surprised at Lilith's boldness. I mean I could make my own decisions.

'She thinks that it would be better if you gained their trust first.' She told me softly.

'Well, that is true, but won't the revelation be even more of a shock to them after they've gotten to know me?' I asked a bit upset.

'Yes, but for your situation, it was the best solution.' She replied.

I sighed heavily. 'Fine, let's just drop it for now.'

'As you wish.' She replied with a grin.

I shook my head; she had always loved to make fun of Lukanatian's butler conduct. Those two had always had a certain brother-sister relationship since they'd met each other, always picking on each other and messing with one another to their hearts' content. It was sort of how some of my demonic siblings and I used to mess with each other. Either that or having playful sparring matches amongst ourselves. It was the demonic way of playing.

Gianna ran up to my side and hit my shoulder. My partners tensed and I shook my head dismissing them.

"That was so mean, you completely had everyone fooled." She said with her face scrunched up. It was quite funny to see her upset.

I laughed. "Sorry, I just thought you guys needed to lighten up just a bit. I mean this is school. Compared to school back in the human world this place is really cool, but everybody is always so serious!" I replied.

"Well that's true, but still. I don't know... I just... you just... you surprised me is all." She said a bit flustered.

"Gianna, tell me the truth. Was there ever a day at school in the human world that I honestly didn't surprise you?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.

"No…" She sighed.

"Well then be prepared because I'm going to make this dull and dreary place fun again like it was before." I told her proudly, not realizing my slip up.

"What do you mean 'like it was before'?" She asked skeptically.

"Um, nothing, I was… just referring to school in the human world." I said.

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Sure you were, well whatever."

For the rest of my summoning and taming classes I mostly just listened to Lilith talk and explain things, after that I sat and watched as the other students struggled to gain mastership over their partners. Of course Gianna's partners listened to her obediently already so she was allowed to sit and talk with me.

The most amusing part of class though, was watching Ahnia fail at trying to get her partner to obey her. She was trying to teach him to rear back and strike out with his front hooves; a typical and predictable battle move for partners that you could ride and that had four feet. Her partner though, was very averse to the thought of performing 'tricks' for her.

If she had ever wanted to advance in his training, I would recommend she started by reshaping his attitude towards her. Following that, I would start with the basics such as just learning to get used to being on his back. After then I might consider thinking of such time consuming training. Ahnia would never listen to me though. Other than that, the class was pretty uneventful. Soon the bell rang and I scurried down the hallway and Lukanatian made his way back to my shoulder and put his cool beak on my ear.

'That was very close. I must request that you be more careful Tori.' He whispered in my mind.

'Yes, I know Lukanatian.' I replied in mind.

'Well then, do you wish to eat at the castle or shall I retrieve your food and bring it here for you to eat?'

'Bring it here please.' I told him and then he disappeared.

As I walked down the hallway having no clue where to go, I practically ran into Magus. He looked the same as he did earlier, just a bit shaken up from my sudden appearance. He smiled slightly and bowed out of respect for me, noticing that there was no one else in the hallway.

"Your majesty how nice of you to drop by." He said with a smirk.

"You should be honored. Not every day does a queen just run into you." I replied.

"Oh but I am." He said sounding playfully offended.

"Sure you are Magus." I said sarcastically.

He laughed and looked up into my eyes. Then, he did something I was not expecting him to do at all. He took my hand in his and kissed it lightly, just brushing the skin. I gasped and he put a finger to my lips then astonishingly enough, whispered in my mind, something I thought only full beasts could do.

'You can hear me right?' He asked

'Yes.' I replied.

'There is something that I've wanted to tell you since you returned and that is that I will protect you. Call and I shall answer. Order and I shall die for you. Anything you ask of me, no matter how crazy it may seem I will comply your majesty.'

I stared gaping at him and then my cheeks flushed pink as I realized he was looking at me too. I looked at the floor and thought a moment. There were only two things I wanted and they were the ability to freely switch between my demonic beast state of being and a sparring partner to help me re-learn how to wield a sword. I wondered if Magus knew how to do either. Almost has if he could read my thoughts, he sat and slowly changed from a half beast into a full one right before my eyes, a pure white wolf.

'If you wish, I can teach you to switch freely between your demon or human and beast forms or maybe I could re-teach you how to wield a sword like I did before if you have forgotten how to.' He said determined to get me to agree to one of the two.

'Well, I guess that would be alright as long as no one found out, I mean isn't it against the rules to let a demon of my caliber learn how to change into their beast form? And aren't demons only allowed to master one weapon? I've already mastered archery.' I told him, worried that I might get in trouble if anyone found out.

'Well as for the changing into your beast form part, no one wanted to teach you because they thought you might use it to hurt people, but I would be willing to. As for learning to master a second weapon, it's not against the rules, it's just not very usual because many demons use the entirety of their lives learning everything they can about their weapon, but because you know everything about archery already, you are allowed to master the sword. It would be best if no one else found out about it though, not even my cousin.' He said with a serious look on his face.

'Well then, when do you want to teach me oh wise one.' I said sarcastically in my mind and fake bowed earning a small barking laugh from him in his beast form.

'If you want, I can teach you for the hour of lunch that you have every day or maybe just a couple of days a week?' He asked.

'Maybe Monday through Thursday you can teach me at lunch and on Friday I can practice on my own at the castle in the morning before school so that I can eat lunch with a friend so as to not raise any suspicion.' I said in mind.

'Yes, that would be the best decision if we ever wish to accomplish this.' He replied calmly. 'Do you want me to start teaching you today?'

'Um sure, but just give me a minute and I'll come to your classroom. I mean the hallway isn't the best place to discuss this and I have to call off Lukanatian.' I told him. He nodded and walked down the hall to his classroom.

After he was far enough away, I called Lukanatian through our bond something I learned how to do just today. He appeared in his human form without his tailcoat, but with an apron and chef's hat on. He looked quite cute. I giggled and his cheeks reddened.

"My lady is there anything you require?" He asked aware that no one was watching.

"Yes there is Lukanatian, I order you to eat the food you made for me and take a break for the rest of lunch at the palace. What I'm pretty much saying is don't bother me for the rest of lunch, okay?" I asked with a smile plastered onto my face.

"I- …, as you wish my lady." He said, bowing and then disappearing. It was much easier than I thought it would be.

I looked up at a clock on the wall and realized that it was getting late and so I decided I should probably run if I wanted to be on time. Slowly I relaxed my muscles and bent down to the floor placing the strap for my book bag around my neck and putting the bag part on my back, I stretched my legs out and took off on all fours down the hallway.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12- Her Majesty's Shady Background

My tail swished happily behind me as I ran and I closed my eyes reveling in my happiness and then, I again, ran into Magus, this time knocking both of us over. I stood and apologized.

He chuckled softly. "It's like you're just a little fledgling again. You have almost absolutely no control over your strength." He shrugged with a small smile.

A look of pure anger crossed my face and I whispered fiercely in his ear. "Yes I do you… you… you damn idiot. Never underestimate me, you got it?" I screamed the last sentence and light blue flames surrounded me.

He smirked and I looked away, cursing under my breath as I felt my cheeks warm.

"Okay, so maybe I don't have as much control as I like to think I do, but I do have some and this… what? My second or third day in the demon world? I mean that's got to count for something, right?" I asked a bit upset.

"Well, it's good enough to let me show you this." He said softly and with a sincere smile. He reached into a pocket on his robe and retrieved a black cast iron key.

All of the students that attended the academy and the teachers who taught at it had all been required to wear the same uniform as I was wearing, a grey t-shirt, black vest and black slacks. They were allowed to customize their uniforms with accessories though. Magus preferred to wear his long black robe just as I preferred to wear my favorite jewelry and shoes, preferably countess shoes. They're my favorite because they make me about two or three inches taller.

The key that Magus had pulled out of his pocket was gorgeous. It was adorned with many small black diamonds surrounding an intricate night black fleur de lis, the symbol that, in this world, meant royalty. I couldn't figure out why he had a key that would belong to royalty though.

Magus turned and closed the door to his classroom, and then he turned and placed the key carefully in the keyhole on the door, turning it to the right. He backed up and the door went up in light blue flames that slowly extinguished to reveal that the mahogany door had turned black and there was a scene carved into it.

The scene depicted a single warrior in a long black coat with white trimming at the bottom. I tried to determine if the figure was male or female, but could not due to the fact that the figure was wearing a hood and a black eye mask. The small mask was adorned with many feathers, much like the ones on my wings and had black diamonds hanging off the bottom and inlaid all around the eyes.

In the figure's hand was one of the most beautiful swords I had ever seen in my existence, be it here or in the human world. It had a long black blade, about three and a half feet long to be exact. That wasn't what I found so beautiful about it though. What I found so beautiful was the black diamonds inlaid on the edge of the blade that looked like glowed light blue. The hilt itself was a piece of art, crafted of what looked like the highest grade of cobalt black steel, it shone like a star. It was absolutely amazing.

Magus looked at me realizing that I was staring at the door and cleared his throat.

"Would you like to go in Tori? It would be in our best interest to hurry in before anyone sees this." He said while scanning the hallway.

"Oh, um, yes let us proceed." I answered and he nodded that took hold of the handle on the door, but before he turned it he turned towards me.

"Would you close your eyes, Tori?" He asked sincerely.

"Um, sure." I answered, and then I closed my eyes.

I heard Magus open the door and felt a small breeze come from the opening and Magus began to walk me towards the middle of the room. He stopped me and asked me to keep my eyes closed while he went to get something. I did as I told and heard him open a big closet, grab a few things, and then closed it. He walked back over and asked me to hold my arms out and I did so.

I felt a satin like fabric slip around my arms and I almost purred in delight. Magus noticed and chuckled as he moved around me straightening the object he had placed on my arms. Next he retrieved something and fastened it on my face. I felt his fingers brush over my temple whilst pulling my hair back and I shivered. I asked him what was on my face and he simply answered that it was a form of protection. He backed up and picked something up from what I presumed would be the floor and asked me to open my right hand. As I did so, I felt cool steel rest on my skin; I presumed it was my sword. He then closed my fist loosely around the sword and pulled something from the back of the object around my shoulders over my head.

"Vous regarder absolument radieuse ma chère. » He said sincerely. If I remembered correctly, that meant 'you look absolutely radiant my dear' when directed toward a female.

"Merci monsieur Magus. Now may I open my eyes?" I asked.

"You may mademoiselle." He said with a smile.

I opened my eyes and the first thing that my mind went to was the picture on the door. I was the one in the picture, I was the figure that I worshipped, and I was the hero of my own story. I looked back and forth between myself and my reflection. I was absolutely beautiful in the swordswoman attire. For the second time in my life I felt absolutely beautiful. The funny thing is that the first time I felt this way; I was in this world too.

"I'm guessing that it would be safe to assume that it still suits your liking." He asked, wondering.

"Then you're guessing correctly." I replied.

I let my eyes trail down to the sword in my hand. Now that I could see the sword first hand, I could tell that its beauty and strength far surpassed that of even the hero sword Excalibur. In fact, when compared to the sword I was holding, Excalibur was like that of an ant and my sword was like that of a black leopard.

"Um, Victoire?" Magus said, trying to get my attention. I snapped out of my strange trance like thoughts and turned to look at him.

"Do you wish to try out a match with me?" He asked as he walked across the room to the closet where I'd guessed he had gotten my apparel from. I examined the room cautiously as he asked me the question.

"Oh, um sure." I said, trying to get him to think I wouldn't try my hardest. It had always been a rule of mine to get my opponent to think that I wasn't going to put up that much of a fight so that I could surprise them.

Magus retrieved a plain steel broadsword and went to turn around, but I caught him off guard and smiled manically. I stuck the point of my sword up against his neck and he shifted slightly, causing blood to be drawn. I gasped when the scent of it hit the air. The entire room was filled with the sweet aroma of candy. It encircled the perimeter of the small circular room and began to move inward.

All I wanted at that moment was to just taste it. To feel that warm red liquid gliding down my tongue and slipping down my throat, warming my whole being would be ecstasy. I could already feel the taste of it on my tongue, smell the smell that completely enthralled my nose, I just wanted to try a bit. I wouldn't even care if it was the tiniest drop at that point. I just had to, I mean it was practically beckoning me to it, but I knew I couldn't. If I did it would be like the equivalent of betraying Lukanatian and I just couldn't do that to him.

Without thinking, I slowly pulled my sword back, quickly bowed and ran. I ran right out the black door and closed it behind me, leaning against it like it was my last means of support. I noticed that the door had changed back to normal so I slowly slid down and pulled my knees into my chest. It truly was a pitiful pose for nobility such as myself to be seen sitting in. I had just finished my last thought before I became aware of the fact that someone, actually Gianna was staring at me from the other end of the hallway. My eyes widened as she started pacing this way and I realized the consequences for myself being seen and identified while dressed like this in public.

It would cause uproar throughout the ranks as to why I was dressed as the assassin who had killed so many of the corrupted members of the demonic council. Well, technically no one truly knew they were corrupted except for me. I then realized something very important, something that would probably change my life here in the demon world. I was the assassin. I remembered it all so clearly. I would sneak out at night when Lukanatian had gone to his sleeping quarters to investigate council members I found suspicious and if I found that they were doing anything remotely traitorous… Well let's just say that that was the end of the line for those certain few.

My father, the king, had never really liked any of the people I killed and so he actually was kind of happy that they were being killed off, but he was the king and so he had to listen to the people. Some were scared that they would be killed next and so, to not trouble my father, I sent a clear message to them only a few days prior to god's attack.

In the town square, there is a huge unused pentagram that people pass by every day and I thought it would be the perfect place to put my message and so I did. I found the most traitorous and hated person left on the council of demons and lured him to the pentagram. That dirty old pedophile thought that some beautiful young demon would be waiting for him there. Instead though, I was waiting in the tree by the pentagram, ready to kill.

As he pitifully called out searching for the 'Beautiful young demon' that called him there, I readied my sword to strike. Then, it just happened like a bolt of lightning. All in one swift flow of movement, I jumped from the tree, stuck my sword straight out and ran it through his chest. Just before he died, I did my trademark move. I pulled my mask off with my eyes closed then I opened them wide. I then grinned a wild and maniacal grin that let the corners of my mouth stretch from the left side of my face all the way to the right.

The old man gasped in surprise and I watched as he choked on the blood that spurted from his mouth in a fountain of crimson red. I put my mask on and went to work after the blood stopped spraying, clever enough to know that if someone saw a person covered in blood heading toward the castle, they would begin to worry. I swiftly cleaned the pentagram, and then dragged his body to the center of it. With his blood I wrote 'Seuls ceux qui trahissent mourra.' It means 'Only those who betray shall die.' I wrote it in French because almost all of the demons in the demon world are bilingual, speaking both English and French. After that, the council members all started to behave much better and my father became extremely happy because of it.

Anyway, if Gianna found out that I were the person who had done all of that, well let's just say I'd be kind of screwed because you can't find a friend like her every day. As she got closer I sprang up and bolted towards the bathroom as fast as I could. When I got to the bathroom I ran in one of the stalls and locked the door behind me and began to panic.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13- Her Majesty's Decisive Past 

Without meaning to I waved my hand frantically in front of me in a sideways snakelike motion, closing my fist at the end and my swordswoman clothing disappeared. I sighed of relief as I sank down to the floor and Gianna ran in.

"Who's in there?" Gianna said as she pressed her eye to the crack on my stall door. I looked at her in disbelief then rolled my eyes. Did she not know we were in the bathroom? Of course she didn't, she had a habit of forgetting where she was when something caught her eye.

"It's just me, Tori." I replied still a bit flustered from the small surprise just a few minutes ago.

"Oh, hey Tori, it's Gianna. By the way, did you happen to notice a swordswoman running past here?" She asked, her tone laced with curiosity.

"No, I didn't actually; did you? You seem a bit flustered yourself." I said with a perfect tone of random curiosity such as when one asks what time it is.

"Well I was actually chasing after who the higher-ups and just about everyone else seems to call 'Mistress Knightshade." She cleared her throat and continued, noticing from the complete silence that I had no clue of who she was talking about. This was actually almost the opposite seeing as I was the person she was talking about, but I allowed her to continue because I hadn't completely remembered my past yet.

"Would you like to continue this somewhere more comfortable?" She asked abruptly. I nodded, quickly realizing that my pants were getting dirty from sitting on the floor. Gianna left the bathroom and waited outside for me. As I heard the door shut I sighed heavily.

"That was a close one." I whispered as I stood.

"Did you say something?" Gianna questioned brusquely as she poked her head back in the door. Her tone surprised me and nearly caused me to trip over the toilet as I stood and exited the stall. Something apparently had her in a bad mood.

The only time when Gianna spoke so ungraciously and unhappily was when something was really bothering her. I made a mental note to ask her about it and then dismissed her saying that I was just talking to myself as usual. It was a habit I had when I was back in the human world and I had apparently carried it along the trip down to Hell with me. Well, it wasn't as bad here at least.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror stopping for a few seconds to once again revel in my new found demonic beauty. I grinned at my reflection, allowing my canine teeth to be seen as they sharped to dagger like points. I then went about brushing my pants off and brushing back the stray hairs that lingered in my line of sight. I cracked my knuckles smirking at the dangerous look that danced across my face as I did so then stalked out of the room to my friend's side.

As we walked casually down the hallway, Gianna had informed me that we had another forty five minutes before lunch ended. All of the creatures that attended the school were allowed an hour and fifteen minutes to go home, eat lunch and return, though most chose to stay and study while they ate. I'd sort of wished I'd gone home because of what I did to Magus only minutes ago. Gianna cleared her throat casually and stopped by a small couch in what seemed to be the school lobby. Lukanatian and I had apparently entered at the North Eastern entrance to the school this morning.

As we sat, the leather of the couch sank in and my nose was filled with the dangerous musk of the material, both alluring and precarious at the same time. It was such an unwarrantable scent to many, but I was so intrigued and attracted to it that I found no reason to care. I shifted so that I was facing my friend after examining and memorizing my new surroundings. Gianna seemed to be lost in thought for a few seconds until she noticed me staring.

"Is there something wrong Tori?" She asked as I stared questioningly at her.

"Are you having guy problems?" I asked abruptly.

"NO!" She answered hastily.

"Getting married?"

"NO!" She repeated.

"Good because if you don't invite me to your wedding, I will quite literally claw your eyes out. Anyway…" I cleared my throat. "Having a baby?" I asked raising an eyebrow to her.

"NO!" She yelled as she threw her hands up to conceal her already crimson cheeks as she laughed. I giggled staring at her. She reminded me of a puppy when she blushed, well she did turn out to be one anyway. When she finally managed to rid herself of the blush, I smiled sincerely and gave her a hug.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" I asked.

"Yeah" she replied, "It's just I've always wanted to meet Mistress Knightshade, she supposedly only sixteen like us and though people call her a murderer, she only kills those who deserve death."

"Well, maybe you will get to meet her one day. Maybe we'll all become friends you, me, the rest of the girls, and her." I replied thoughtfully.

"Anyway, enough about what I want" she said with a new fire in her eyes, "Let's talk about the Mistress Knightshade."

"Okay." I replied, turning to sit cross legged next to her.

"Alright, let's see… have you ever heard of Queen Natas." She asked with an intelligent gleam in her eye.

"Uh… I remember hearing that she was one of the past Demon Queens, but that's all I've learned so far." I replied sheepishly.

"That's okay. Queen Natas was the first Demon Queen to ever be instated in Hell, not only that but she was said to have created Hell and all of the demons including her husband Satan himself." She said seemingly impressed by the queen.

"But I thought Satan was an angel who fell from Heaven…" I said confusedly.

"No, that's just what God brain washed the humans into thinking. Natas really created all of us and Hell while on the other hand Tsirhc, God's wife created Heaven and all the heavenly beings including her husband."

"So I presume that Natas and Tsirhc weren't on very good terms?" I stated questioningly.

"Actually, they were the best of friends almost like you and I, but as for their husbands, they were on pretty good terms, but were always very suspicious of each other's actions and motives."

"Really?" I asked aloud shaking my head. Gianna nodded and continued.

"The angels and demons all got along fairly well for nearly one hundred years, but then Tsirhc became very ill with what we Demons now believe to be the heavenly version of Demon Mortelle."

I shivered at the thought of the sickness then allowed her to once again continue the story.

"When Tsirhc died, God immediately turned to believing that we had poisoned her. When both Satan and Natas vehemently pleaded that they were not guilty of the heinous crime, God went on a rampage and killed nearly a third of all the demons including Natas. As Natas's body lie in a pool of its own blood, suddenly, her spirit broke free and manifested itself in the center of the battle as a huge black and red wolf. She howled long enough to catch the attention of all of the creatures including her grief-stricken husband and God. When all eyes were on her she spoke to God saying 'my husband and I have not lied, and yet you treat us as traitors, what a pitiful creature you are and for this, I shall one day bestow my power upon one female of my race. Once the girl I have chosen turns sixteen and bares my beast form, you will know that she is the one who I deem fit of the task of bringing you to your senses and righting our two worlds so that we may one day live in harmony again. Now be gone' she said and with this, the apparition disappeared."

"So… how does this relate to the Mistress Knightshade again?" I asked again confused.

"Well, when you think about it, she's sixteen, she apparently has the black and red wolf form and she is working her way up towards bringing the harmony back by first repairing the damages on our world."

"Oh, I get it now." I replied.

"So that's why I'm so bummed about not meeting her." Gianna said with a small frown and a slight whine to her tone.

"Yeah, but like I said before, you might get to meet her in the future." I said to try and reassure her.

"But…" She trailed off seemingly at a loss of words.

"You might not ever have the opportunity again?" I offered her.

"Yeah." She replied briefly shaking her head.

"Well, think of it this way, what if The Mistress Knightshade is not who you really think she is. I mean, what if she really turns out to be some cold, heartless person who unmercifully kills people just because she can?" I reciprocated, trying to dismiss the thoughts that she might have had about me being The Mistress Knightshade.

"But, from all of the research I've done for the past week I've been here, all of it leads me to believe she is truly of good nature…" She trailed off.

"I know, I know once you've decided to believe something, no one can sway you from believing so. Anyway, I heard that The Mistress Knightshade died quite some time ago didn't she?" I asked cautiously.

"Yeah, she actually disappeared during the last great war. We lost many during the last war, many royalty and many others…" A sad, tortured expression danced across her face as she turned away.

"What's wrong?" I asked worried about the expression she made.

"Nothing, it's just… well, every time I've tried to sleep in the past week that I have been here, I've had a dream of something in Hell's past almost like I was actually there seeing it happen. At first I had no clue what I was dreaming of, but then I sought out the Sir Malphas and asked him about it. Upon asking, he informed me that I dreamt of the four great battles of Heaven and Hell." She stopped abruptly and looked down at her hands in horror.

"What's wrong?" I asked a bit scared by her horrified expression.

"There was blood… so much blood. It was everywhere I looked, on everything I touched and pouring down from the sky. I remember feeling scared, so scared to the extent of feeling like prey being hunted by a predator, knowing that I could die, no, knowing that I would die at any second." She shook with fear at the distant memory that seemed to haunt her.

"Relax its okay you're not really there." I said as I laid both of my hands on her shoulders and stared straight into her eyes, trying to coax her back to reality. She slowly stopped shaking and looked into my eyes.

"You've had them too haven't you?" She asked as her paler than usual skin leisurely regained its color.

"I… yes." I answered with a small, mournful sigh. Last night I had distinctly remembered dreaming of the last great battle, well at least that's what I thought it was. I remembered watching my father hold me for the last few minutes of his existence as my body reverted to an empty shell. His eyes watered and turned glassy as he stared into my paling face, into the depths of my paling eyes. He tried ever so hard to reach out to a soul that was no longer a part of this world, the soul that I once called my own.

Cracks covered my face and slowly moved their way down my body, eventually covering my arms and legs. Once they had completely covered my body from head to toe, skinny tendrils of darkness began coiling around my legs and arms, eventually completely encircling my head. The tendrils constricted and one single tear escaped from my lifeless eyes before I swallowed by black flames, mercifully gifting my body to the Daemons of Olde. Never did I want to have that dream again.

I shivered as chills danced their way down my spine, laughing at the thought of dying. I had already died once, didn't anyone think that was enough?

I suddenly turned my head toward Gianna and noticed the troubled look I saw deep inside her eyes. She was staring at a picture on the wall. The lone picture depicted a dove fighting a raven in the background, a representation of the struggle between Heaven and Hell. In the foreground, though, a huge black and red wolf was pictured holding a huge rabbit, presumably its prey in its mouth, blood dripped from the puncture wounds on the rabbit and smeared across the wolf's face giving it the perfect finishing touch. It was easy to understand what it meant.

"Is something the matter dear friend?" I asked Gianna with a look of shear concern plastered onto my face.

"No… It's just…well, yeah I guess so…" She looked at me then trailed off again glancing at the picture once more.

"Well what seems to be the problem dearie?" I asked her with a faux British accent.

She pondered the question for a few seconds then answered. "Well, I was looking at the picture and I can gather that it represents the food chain, but it leads me to wonder. What exactly is the food chain to us, what does it mean for us?" She asked with a confused look.

"Well... I guess you could say that the royalty would be a couple steps above us and the commoners would be about one below us, but the animals would be about a couple steps below us."

"Not like that, but as a whole, all of us demons, including the royals, where do we stand in the world?" She wore a cross expression as she stared down at her hands.

"I honestly don't know…" I answered unsure of the answer myself.

"Anyway, have you met Sir Malphas?"

"No, but I do know of him. He's our principal isn't he?"

"Yup, I think that because we have like fifteen minutes left we should pay him a visit."

"Okay." I replied as I stood from the intoxicating scent of the leather couch.

Most of the scent of the couch retracted from my body and reformed an invisible barrier around the couch. The little that was left lingering around my form slowly dissipated as we moved.

We moved in unison, Gianna and I, both of our sets of footsteps falling as one. I had noticed for the first time that she was wearing heels. At first I didn't realize it because she seemed shorter than me, but her heels must have been the same size as mine if she was shorter than me. She and I had always been about the same height though I was just a few centimeters taller than her.

For a few seconds I pondered whether or not she knew where she was going, but we finally found Malphas's office and I almost verbally sighed of relief. Gianna looked at me with a face full of concern, clearly wondering what caused my strange reaction. I shook my head dismissing any thought she could have produced over the matter. She rolled her eyes and shook her own head still staring at me.

"So…" She trailed off staring at the black door in front of us "Well, bye." She finished just before running down the hallway and disappearing from my line of sight. I turned to stare after her.

"What the hell was that?" I wondered as I once again turned to the door that laid in front of me.


	14. Chapter 14

~~~~ Here's an extra looooooooonnnnnng chapter for my awesome fan fiction followers for putting up with mah writers' block. Plus, my computer deleted seventy pages I hadn't updated yet so I was pissed for a while =) ~~~~

Chapter 14- Her Majesty's Brother's Power

I raised my fist to knock on the door, the sound echoing and reverberating through my entire form. The sound sent chills down my spine as I stood patiently awaiting the opening of the door. After a minute passed by, I allowed my shoulders to slump as I turned to the side and allowed my head to rest on the door.

Just seconds after doing so, I heard a shuffle in the room and the door swung open nearly allowing me to fall. I turned to cast a glare full of contempt at whoever had opened the door, but then, I saw him. It was Prince, or rather, Sir Malphas Alexie Devastia, my eldest brother, in the demonic flesh. He looked up from his desk, messy black and white hair framing his face and filling his piercing red eyes with mysteriously deadly shadows.

I would have laughed at his appearance, except he and I were locked in what was almost like a silent but deadly staring contest. He stared straight facedly at me, his face devoid of any emotion as he silently assessed my every movement. I stared back, making no move to approach him yet. The silence stretched for what seemed like hours, but in reality, was actually only seconds. Slowly Malphas cocked his head to the side and threw me a teasing smirk.

"Not exactly the most ladylike pose for the soon-to-be-new-queen. Is it Victoire? Or should I call you Queen Victoire Marie Devastia?" He finished as he stood from his chair and half bowed for me, a wide toothy grin on his face. His canines sparkled, dangerous yet beautiful as the light reflected from them.

"Call me as you wish, Sir Malphas." I retorted.

"Oh, why thank you for taking my title into consideration, but for you Queen Victoire, it's just Malphas." He smiled as he said so, a look of pure affection and love.

"Why thank you Malphas, you may also drop the formalities. Seeing as I'm not yet queen and you're still my brother, there shall be no need…" I trailed off lowering my head to the floor.

"Is something bothering you Tori?" He asked, genuinely concerned for my wellbeing.

"Not much, it's just… Do you think Allecis or Uphir or even Marieane would mind?" I replied my face still down toward the floor.

"Mind what?" He questioned, his facial expression set in stone.

"Me becoming queen, I mean they, each and every one of them, had a place in line for the throne that was in front of mine, even you, Artemis and Eurynomous. I just can't help but feel like I'm cheating all of you out of this against your will…" I stopped, looking up at Malphas.

My stomach clenched tightly as I witnessed the sadness in his eyes take control of all the happiness that was left and crush it into a million pieces. Malphas had given his place in the thrown up for the job he had wanted, the job to make sure that all young demon fledglings and all others attending this school were making the right decisions in life so that none of them ended up like me. They all had the choice to live their life as they pleased, no strings attached.

On the other hand, there was me, the only demon left to take the throne, the only demon that had the power and ability to kill other demons without so much as flinching. I was like a ghost, always wandering between the many paths I could take to decide my future, never able to pick one. I wondered if I'd still be able to kill a fellow demon when the time came. Would I still be able to fight with as much finesse as I used to?

Magus had crossed the room, his wings, black as night and four times the size of mine, had unfurled into glorious curtains of never ending darkness. I realized what he was doing and allowed my arms to wrap around his thin, but sturdy frame as his wrapped around my own. He closed his wings around us allowing no light besides the light of our glowing red eyes to pierce the darkness. I shivered as I tilted my head back to look up into his eyes, both intriguing and frightening me.

I closed my eyes as he took my chin in his hand and tilted my head farther back, his scent overpowering my own and filling the small, dark space. He leaned his head in toward my own, his lips slightly parted as he moved toward me. His lips met mine and softly parted them granting himself access to do what he pleased, but he knew I wouldn't tolerate games. He nicked his lip with a sharpened canine allowing his blood to stream from the cut, into my mouth and down my throat. He and I growled pleasurably as we both relaxed into the comfort of each other's hold.

Feeding from one another was a very unethical thing according to the angels because it's a pleasurable experience, but to us, it's just as normal as kissing someone. Well, maybe a little more. The only reason why we all don't go around feeding from just anybody is that it often leads to other activities if you go too far with it. In an attempt not to be raped by just anybody, most demons only feed from family members or their lovers.

Normally, I wouldn't feed from my family, but Malphas' blood possesses a special trait that no one else in our family has. His blood has the power to show the one feeding from him things that he has seen in the past when he wills it to. This was the only reason I ever fed from him.

I opened my eyes to stare at my kind, intelligent elder brother. He would always be the better suitor for the throne; I still had yet to understand why he gave his place up. My brother's eyes seemed lonely, but they were full of the hunger that my entire body experienced as I drank the blood he willingly offered me. I stared into them, entranced by their brilliant crimson red tone with flecks of deep mahogany and bright magentas. I realized something as I remained entranced by their depths.

What I had realized was a very dire issue. I realized that I had not completely trusted him at first; it was why I used to keep myself distanced from him. It wasn't exactly at first, but ever since I had adopted my alias as The Mistress Knightshade I had been distancing myself from the others. I was like a caged animal, I felt like if I got to close to them, they would find out my secret. I was being controlled by my actions, unable to escape or free myself from the darkness that always followed and surrounded me because of them.

All I wanted was for my family to be safe and not involved in the matters of my alter ego's business. The Mistress Knightshade, she is the other me and I am the other her. Upon learning of her existence within me I had immediately accepted her as the other me, we are always inseparable, the best of friends. "Only one thing is wrong with having her around" I used to think. That one thing was that she is what attracts the death and darkness to me.

Without her though, I would just be a normal demon, but I would also be alone. We are the same person, but we share our pain equally. When I'm in pain so is she and when she is in pain so am I. Without her I would not be able to continue living. If I couldn't rid myself of her, than I would just have to learn to balance out my life or just tell everyone and get it over with. If I had to pick between the two I would most likely pick the former. There was no way I was about to blurt out to everyone that I was that much of a killer even if some of them did think I ought to be glorified for it.

Malphas nicked my lip with a tooth careful not to break the skin, bringing me back to my senses. Apparently I had enough of his blood for whatever he was about to show me.

I blinked my eyes and he was gone, but I wasn't alone. I was in a wide field that seemed to stretch for miles and miles on end, at least, as far as my eyes could see. It was almost like a quiet little prairie except for one detail I had left out. The field was covered in blood. Bodies lay lifeless, completely surrounding me from all sides. Some faces were familiar, but many were not, and some I couldn't tell due to the immense extent to which they were damaged. I was standing in the middle of the battlefield on which I had died.

I fell to my knees despite the blood stained grass as I watched the battle play out right before my very eyes. It was utterly horrific. It was everywhere, everywhere all around me, the terrifying magnitude of the battle was overwhelming. Just the feeling made me both dizzy and nauseous.

There were no spaces between the bodies, dead or alive. I felt the enormous pressure from the power of all of the creatures' power levels looming over me, daring me to make a move. The taunting worked. I began to whirl around and kick a high level angel square in the jaw, but my foot passed right through. My eyes widened as my foot came back around causing me to stumble and fall right through a dead body. The body remained unchanged.

I gasped in horror, utterly terrified of what was happening as I just sat there and watched. Every movement slowed as I stood running through the many moving bodies, pushing past every one of them even though I could just run through them.

My hands kept fumbling about, searching for something to push off of in order to gain more speed as I stumbled through the accursed field. My heart beat faster and faster as I paced the field looking for myself and my mother, desperately thinking that I could stop either of our deaths from occurring. Demons do not sweat, but something poured down my cheeks as I kept searching. I realized that it was indeed not sweat, but tears. They poured down my face and I roughly brushed them away as I ran, guided by the slight tug of my heart. It was almost as if a string that was attached to my heart was pulling me to my mother and former self.

I arrived right on cue only to see my mother stabbed through the heart with that wretched archangel Gabriel's holy lance. Blood splattered everywhere as her body fell lifeless to the ground though still with a motherly smile on her face. Gabriel smirked and leapt through a window to heaven just barely escaping the wrath of former me's claws.

My former self returned to my mother and watched as her body crumbled away to dust. The ashes blew away on a small breeze carrying my mother toward a new life somewhere, hopefully much better than here. My former self's face was blank, but I could feel both the happiness and sadness intermingling with one another. "Or maybe these feelings are my feelings?" I wondered.

I turned back to my former self and saw her stand. The flames of all of the surrounding creatures suddenly were absorbed and used to create what was almost like a fiery armor around her body. The only difference was that the black and red flames surrounded her in a wolf like form while the bright blue flames seemed to emanate from that form.

Oddly enough, it was hard to take my eyes off of her, almost like I was under a spell or enchantment of the sort. I stole a glance at all of the creatures around her and realized they were also entranced by the mystifying display. No one moved.

No one dared to move around her like they were all scared, but that's because they were. I felt the terrified atmosphere trying to pin me to the ground. It didn't work this time though, now I had the strength to stay here and watch. Lukanatian had never told me about this part of the story, I wondered why. He was standing only a few yards away watching just as I was except in that time.

The former me through her head back and howled a loud, furious and choked howl. It was sad, distressed, angry and brave all at the same time. I could tell that she meant business by the way she stood crouched down low on all fours waiting for any movement she could perceive in her state of mind. A little ways to the right of me, a group of both high and low ranking angels began to back away nervously.

My former me noticed them right away and lunged toward the closest one's throat, effectively ripping it out and allowing blood to splatter and taint her porcelain skin. The angels began running and screaming and killing whoever was in their way, but the demons had a new found power from her display. They were beginning to fight back with an even greater strength than before.

Soon after killing the first one, Matthew began pushing her to kill the rest of them, but after only killing several more angels. My former self collapsed and her eyes switched from red to black to blue and back. Her body convulsed as something attacked her from the inside, it was the sickness. It mixed in with her blood and power turning everything in her body against each other, effectively killing her from the inside out.

She fell to her knees, screaming in pain as everyone stopped and watched, no one moved. My father ran to her side and pulled her into his arms as her eyes slowly faded to a shiny steel color. His eyes widened and he dropped his head and whispered fervently to her as her last minutes ticked past.

"I-I'm so sorry daughter, I, please forgive me. I never wanted to leave you and not only that, but I never planned on leaving such a broken and corrupted world in your hands even though I know that you are quite capable of restoring it to its former glory. Just remember my dearest and strongest daughter, you are to be these peoples' savior and so you must be strong and listen to what the people have to say. As queen you cannot act too stubborn, you must use the proper etiquette that your mother and I have been teaching you all your life. Dear, you must think as you act, neither before, nor after and act as you think. Strike with precision and valiance, use the powers you were born with. No matter how many people dislike you, it is only for one reason, because they are scared of you, they know that you can surpass them, be greater than them, be stronger and more beautiful than them and you will." He stopped and chuckled softly to himself then continued.

"Dear, you must fight just as hard as I had to in order to attain the place as their leader and to attain both their approval and love. It is a long, tiring path that you must take, but I know you can do it, I have faith in you. Victoire you must always think this way 'Killing is not something we do to ourselves, only those who have greatly wronged and disserve punishment.' Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer if you wish to become as valiant and brave of a ruler as myself. No, you will become a ruler even greater and more fit than myself or anyone ever was. You shall live up to your fate and become Natas's rightful successor, destined to receive her power, right the worlds and even surpass her possibly." He finished as her eyes grew darker and darker. She just barely lifted her head and spoke.

"Father, I could never be upset with you, after all, it's not your fault, it's god's fault. I just want to let you know that I love you no matter what and that I will find you and bring you back one day when I, when I'm…queen." My former self said.

With that her head slumped down into his shoulder and a single tear escaped the corner of her eye. I stood wide eyed and watched for the first time I could ever remember, my father cry, I couldn't even remember him crying any of the days before I had died. I let my head fall from the scene, my hair obscuring my view as tears fell in a constant flow from my eyes down to the ground.

I begrudgingly looked back up to watch, partially trying to ignore the tears cascading down my cheeks. In this world, crying was a sign of weakness, but technically it is brave of you to allow someone to see you at your weakest. The ways of both the human and demon worlds confused me more than anything else in life.

I watched as my father drew a fleur de lis made of ashes upon my old body's forehead and laid it softly on the least bloody patch of land he could find nearby.

Slowly my body turned to stars and the stars made their way up to what was now the night sky. There it lay between Lupus and Aquila, with the rest of the past royals who had passed on out of this life and my former self, the star sign of the Fleur Mortelle.

My father turned and began chanting the lines of The Chant of Mass Destruction. I just couldn't watch anymore. I turned and ran back the way I came from. I only ran for a few feet before running into something. I opened my eyes and found Malphas staring at me with a very concerned look on his face.

"How are you? Are you well enough to go back to class?" He asked frantically, opening his wings to reveal his empty office.

"I-I'm fine. Of course I can go to class." I said a bit too flustered sounding for Malphas, he made a disapproving face.

"Malphas stop worrying over me. I should be worrying over you because of all the blood I took. Plus, you've got a school to run; you can't be bothering yourself with just one student." I continued.

"You're my sister though, and not to mention the queen-to-be. You're too much like our father, you care so much about everyone but when comes to yourself, you couldn't care less even if you were on the verge of death." Malphas stated.

"Oh, shut up you're just the same as I am, listen to yourself now." I replied.

Malphas opened his mouth as if to say something then quickly closed it. He cast an ashamed glance down toward the floor and sighed. He always puts family first even after he became the principal of the school. It was a trait that typically ran in the family.

"That's better. I don't like you prioritizing me when you have over four thousand young demons and a few hundred angels to take care of." I said with a small smile.

"Well I know but still, I just got you back, I don't think I'll give you up to death that easily next time, little sister." Malphas replied.

I turned to look up at the clock and my eyes bulged out of my skull. I had been in here for twenty minutes. That meant I was late. Normally I'd be fine with that, but my next class's teacher had a very strict no-late-students policy if I'd remembered correctly.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15~ Her Majesty's Daring Friend

"Oh, F- I mean sh-, uh, never mind." I yelled as I ran to the door, flung it open and ran down the hall.

As I ran, Gianna eventually caught up with me and fell into pace right next to me. I took a glance in her direction and she looked back at me and gave a small smile and quick nod. I laughed inside. She would still wait for me even if she would be punished. She was so faithful to me that it killed me to be hiding so much from her.

As Gianna and I neared the door, I slowed our pace, allowing my instincts to set in once more. I remembered the next teacher, and quite clearly for some odd reason. He was a good friend of mine and the rest of the Devastia family's, but even if I was to be the next queen and was a friend, he would not accept my lateness.

The first time that I had met him, the first thing he told me was "If you're ever late again, I will shoot you… in the head, no strings attached." He would too; he was and is just that kind of person. He always stuck to his policies. The door was ajar when I stopped in front of it; this scared me the most because he never left the door open… never. In the mind of this man, leaving the door open was both unorthodox and improper.

Silently, appearing to do so without attracting attention to myself, I opened the door. As I began to take a step toward the class, a single bullet flew silently between Gianna and I, splicing the ends of a few pieces of my hair and burrowing its way into the wall behind us.

"Laelos." I growled playfully as my fur bristled and feathers became anxious, awaiting the man's next move.

As I turned toward my teacher, Laelos "The Bullet Prince", he smiled and arched an eyebrow toward me while sitting nonchalantly on top of his desk. He was only a bit older than me, maybe by a few months. Though his short black hair that framed his pale face and slender neck was one of his amazing attributes, it wasn't his most noticeable asset. What was most noticeable were his eyes, not just the fact that he had heterochromia iridum, or differently colored irises, one being red and the other magenta, but also the piercing yet alluring gaze that he could summon with them. Laelos was a very well-known demon because of his special power that he was born with. Although he is French demon as the rest of the demons in my kingdom are, he was also half Japanese demon. Laelos had inherited his Japanese mother's ability to will anyone to do anything he likes, but as the old saying goes 'an eye for an eye', each time Laelos uses it, he dies. Yes, he dies, he doesn't go into a coma and die for a second then wake up, he quite literally dies and then comes back to life. I don't know how he does it, but sometimes he can stay dead for days on end so in order to be able to actually come back to life he has to be very careful about how he uses his power. I turned my focus back to my teacher; he still sat on top of his desk, only now, his face was blank.

"I see you're as well as ever Laelos!" I announced with a sing-songy tone. A sarcastic smile crept its way eerily onto my face as he began to laugh.

He gazed at me with that malevolent look in his eyes he often used while fighting, hinting that he wasn't too damn pleased with my tardiness. His laughing ceased abruptly, as did the smile that had once graced his handsome features.

Whenever Laelos punished someone for anything, it was no laughing matter; it was almost as if he had become Satan himself. When he punished me though, it was a whole different story. You see, I did not often give Laelos the pleasure of punishing me, but when I did, boy did he make it a whole hell of a lot worse than anyone else's punishment.

Laelos reached for a drawer, the drawer he kept his gun in in particular and removed something, though I couldn't tell what it was, I had a pretty good idea. He placed it in his pants pocket. Almost motionlessly, he slid off of his desk and began pacing toward me as about thirty pairs of watching eyes followed after his tall, lanky frame.

He approached me cautiously, I could tell by the way his steps were light and the way he just moved in general, and began examining every inch of me. As he did so, I was careful not to move so as not to surprise him into attacking me. As he walked behind me, I got the prickling feeling of my instincts telling me something bad was going to happen, but I just suppressed the urge to dart from my place. Instead of doing so, I just stood as still as I possibly could. I took a deep breath and realized that something was wrong.

Something just barely touched by head and I could tell that it was the nose of a gun. My back immediately straightened and the mood grew ever serious.

"What's wrong, did you forget what you promised me? To not be late to my class, and look what you went and did!" He whispered evilly into my ear.

"I wonder what Lukanatian would think if I told him I killed you for being late to my class." Laelos whispered almost silently. I could tell Laelos dropped his guard a bit seeing that I wasn't making any moves and I took advantage of that.

I spun and swung my leg around, bringing it down hard on his hand, effectively causing him to drop his gun and clutch his hand in pain. I hadn't meant to hurt him so bad, but I knew he was testing me and so that's what he got for messing with me. As he still clutched his hand, Laelos cursed and some of the students gasped and looked in surprise at me, all wondering how I had the guts to do that to a teacher.

It wasn't really guts though; I just kind of did it based on instinct. It was a do or die situation after all, according to my instincts at least.

A devilish smile played itself across my face as I used my opportunity and jumped up and used Laelos's shoulder as leverage to propel myself up through the air and toward the rafters, all the while staring into his pain filled eyes. It almost made me feel sorry for him that I kicked him with so much force, seeing as I was using nearly a third of my strength, but I knew he was a master of trickery so I couldn't let it get to me.

As I flew through the air, I realized that I was slowly losing altitude and so I tried using my wings, but they were no help, they were too small to do much of anything. My mind reacted quickly and I remembered that I could use magic to propel myself upward. I flipped and turned so that my body flew through the air in a handstand form.

While meaning to cast fire from my hands, I accidently cast wind and though it did get me all the way up, it did notify the students that I knew more than my fair share of air magic. They probably already suspected me as being one of The Elder Ones.

The Elder Ones were and still are demons who are much, much older and more powerful than they look, but don't because they somehow altered both their growth and aging processes. This is typically achieved by consuming a special potion or casting long term spells in succession. It wasn't illegal, but it wasn't that common that demons of my age did it and so there were mostly older looking Elder Ones.

I grabbed one of the thick beams and used it to swing myself up and hid behind it. I laughed silently as Laelos searched plainly for me as if he wasn't trying to find me. After a few seconds he gave in to the urge and used his instincts to locate me.

Laelos stared right in my direction and smirked mischievously, probably thinking about how he would get to me. I rolled my eyes and darted to another beam, moving slowly enough so that Laelos could see me wink to him and fake shoot him.

"I've missed you so much Victoire!" He whispered, only audible to me.

I swung around to a higher up beam, leaned back and howled a deep, throaty howl as I moved. A bullet landed in the wood next to me. I knew it was only a warning shot, but I reacted as if it were an attack. I pulled my lips back, revealing my already sharpening sparkling white canines and growled menacingly as I quickened my pace.

"You dare shoot at me of all people?!" I spat through clenched teeth, faking offense.

"Oh why not? I told you I would shoot you in the head if you were late!" He yelled to me allowing the others to hear.

"Well, you'll just have to catch me first tiger!" I yelled referring to his tail. It was exactly like that of a Siberian Tiger. Laelos eye twitched in displeasure. He liked his tail and all, but he hated it when I called him tiger. To him it was "degrading" or so he once said.

I knew that I couldn't stay up forever so I decided to drop down for a spell. Using my demonic speed, I propelled myself off the thickest beam I could find, hoping the impact wouldn't crush it, and shot toward Laelos. Little did I know though, he figured I would do this and was ready, his pearl handled pistol pointed right at me.

He shot three times in quick succession as I flew toward him and so I had no choice but to take the hits. All three were to my head, he always keeps his promises.

I fell to the ground just a few yards from both him and the class, clutching my wounds and covering my mouth so as not to vomit. The pain seared trough my forehead like a fire and I gripped the wound even tighter willing it to heal more quickly. I stopped my heart beat and stopped breathing, effectively speeding up the pace for my recovery.

Though many demons do have a heart beat and breathe as I do, none of us actually need it; it's just something we do to feel more human. Acting human though, is a weakness to us, but it allows us to learn fear and by accepting that fear, we can grow much stronger and much more intelligent.

Laelos turned to the class as a lot of them stared in shock and horror, thinking I was dead. Laelos laughed and exclaimed "And that class, is exactly why you should never be late to my class!"

That statement just made my blood boil and spend up my healing process exponentially. He acted as if I was dead though he knew I really wasn't. It just pissed me off knowing that he was flaunting my weakness while I just sat there. He was going to get it later.

I felt the wound in my head heal over the bullets and felt the bullets travel through my body and out my mouth, into my hand. I laughed silently feeling the bullets in my hand. They wouldn't hurt even a demon fly, let alone me. The bullets were uncharmed and had no special demon slaying qualities whatsoever. The only ones they could hurt here were the humans.

I had noticed that all of the students were no longer paying any attention and so I took the chance to attack. Lifting myself up silently with the aid of wind magic I stood and placed each of the bullets individually between my fingers. Just as Laelos noticed me and began to speak, I flung them with nearly five times the force that his gun used to shoot them at my head and implanted them in his skull in the same exact position as they were in my own. Laelos just toppled over onto his desk, lying on his face.

Once again, all of the students were shocked and so I exclaimed "Oh, come on! You guys saw what he did to me! He deserves it! Don't any of you agree with me?" None of the students made any movements and so I replied "Ah, you guys are such babies!"

Some of the demons growled at me and I growled back at them exclaiming "You want to get shot too?" The angels on the other hand though all just frowned or looked pissed off and so to them I said "Look at you guys! You can't even growl! Is this how you expect to defeat god?" Some of the angels looked sad and some even began to cry.

"What the hell do you guys expect to do on the battlefield when you're fighting against friends and or family when you can't even hear the name god without keeping a straight face? Honestly you guys, you're going to need some serious training here!" I sighed and looked at Laelos; he was lying on his desk motionless. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"You!" I yelled pointing to a strong looking white haired demon.

"What?" He exclaimed unhappily.

"I want you to move him off the desk and go put him outside the classroom." I said calmly.

"What makes you the boss of me?!" He yelled.

"Well first of all, ox, I'm stronger than you, second of all, I've probably had a hell of a lot more experience than you and third of all, I will kill you if you don't." I answered without so much as flinching while referring to his ox like tail.

The boy got up quickly and did as I asked, too scared of the consequences to do anything else. As he did so I scanned the students to pick out which ones would probably be natural gunmen and which ones wouldn't. After the boy returned, I moved the naturals to one side of the room and those who would need more work to the other side.

I put my hands on my hips and manifested my gun. Manifestation is something demons do that makes an object from far away appear right before them, it is often done by higher ranking demons. The gun glinted in the shining light of the room. It was all black except for the white shine of the black diamonds inlaid into it. These diamonds were special ones that made my weapon effective against demons and angels, as well as humans.

Using my demonic energy, I can direct it into the stones which change it into either a demon or angel slaying bullet. For low level demons, one bullet would take up all of their energy, but for me, because I have practically endless energy, I could shoot a multitude of bullets.

Gianna didn't look to be a gunwoman to me and so I had her join the not as experienced group. After doing so, I studied the students and they all looked back at me with bored expressions. One student in particular caught my attention; it was one of the males among the naturals. The brown haired angel stood talking to the blond next to him as if he could care less about what I was doing. It ticked me off and pushed me over the edge.

I loaded my gun with the energy I was brimming with and aimed right at him. I fired and just before it hit him I froze the bullet of energy. Walking up to him, I flicked his forehead as he stood staring in fear at the glowing bullet.

"What's your problem?!" He practically screamed, his voice hoarse and strained.

"Oh, I don't know… maybe that you're talking while I'm assessing your abilities so you're going to be tested first." I exclaimed as I arched my eyebrow and dispersed the bullet.

I turned on my heel and walked a few paces away from him then spun around, ran up to him at not even half the speed I was capable of and pointed my loaded gun at his head. The glittering stones on my gun sparkled blue with my energy as the boy screamed.

"Question one, what is your weakness?" I asked plainly.

"Talking while you're assessing us?" He questioned.

"Wrong!" I yelled. "Never answer a question with a question in the first place and you're not thinking hard enough. How did you react when I pointed my gun at you? Did you take it like a man, dodge, or just stand there and scream like a little girl?" I asked after making one cut on his arm.

"I screamed, so what and why did you cut me?" He replied as if he were the king of the world.

"First of all, I cut you because I believe that people learn from their mistakes much better when there is a consequence. Second of all, why did you scream?" I asked as I backed up from him.

"Because I didn't want to die of course!" He replied.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner here. Your weakness is that you're afraid to die whether you know it or not. Now, what will you do to overcome your fear?" I asked.

"…Become strong enough so that I don't have to fear even death…"He trailed off so as not to answer with a question.

I started slowly clapping and the rest of the class followed suit. Some even cheered. When the clapping ceased, I yelled to the boy. "What's your name monkey? Oh and if you stop talking while I'm doing things, I think you'll one day make a great gunmen."

"The name's Eiden and thanks wolf." He replied eying me up and down as if he'd have even a chance with me.

"Well nice to meet you Eiden and don't call me wolf unless you want to have all of your limbs ripped mercilessly from your body in your sleep, now go check up on Laelos." I spat viciously.

"Nice to meet you too wolf!" He yelled as he ran away from me. I reached out to claw at him, but wasn't fast enough, he ran out the door toward Laelos.

Eiden returned and continued to tease me, but was silent while I tested the rest of the students. After I finished he spoke to me.

"Hey wolf, why are you testing them anyway? I mean it's cool and all and I know Laelos is out cold but why are you doing this for us? You're just the same as us other than the fact that you're a lot stronger…" By now I had gotten over him calling me wolf so I just allowed it.

"Because, Eiden, or rather, monkey, I was taught how to use a gun this way by a very powerful and resilient man and do you know who that man was?" I asked.

"Laelos?" He replied uncertain.

"Yes, Laelos taught me how to use a gun by first having me both address and learn from my weaknesses in order to become stronger. Then after that, I had to learn my weapon forward and backward and inside out and even learn to be the weapon. It was difficult, but by learning from him, I became the person I am today, but I was away for a while so I guess my skills must be getting a bit rusty." I replied with a small laugh.

"You make him out to be such a great person, all he does these days is give us guns and tell us to hit the target, but today was different. We were actually learning about the weapons, maybe you coming back caused him to want to actually teach us again." He said with a small smile.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Well, there's a story about Laelos…" He trailed off.

"What's the story?"

"Well, apparently Laelos had one student that he prioritized above all others, a female student in particular. He taught her everything he knew and even revealed some of his deepest, darkest secrets to her. She was a child prodigy when it came to just about any weapon she laid her lands on and guns were no exception to this. As Laelos taught her, he began to realize that he cherished every single moment that he spent with her and after a while even realized that he loved her. Though he truly wanted to tell her, Laelos couldn't bring himself to tell her because he feared that if he told her and she didn't love him back that she wouldn't want to see him anymore. Then the last great battle broke out and both of them were called to fight. Both began on defense, but she was soon after sent out to offence and that was the last they ever saw of each other…" Eiden sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing… it's just… maybe you're the one he fell in love with… I don't know but ever since yesterday, he's been completely different and I'm guessing you got here yesterday… am I right?" He responded.

"Yes, I did get here yesterday, but… I don't really know if that girl was me, but I'm not the same person I was then…" I sighed. If only he knew how different…

"I've seen the way he acts toward you and the way you react to him. It's not like there isn't anything there. I mean, you guys could at least be friends couldn't you?" He pondered.

I looked around the room to the other students to monitor their activities. After I had finished testing them, I ordered them to go inspect the weapons we had in the room. Some students stared confusedly at them; others were helping them to understand. Running a class was hard! I hoped Laelos would wake up soon, but also kind of expected him to still be unconscious for at least another hour or two.

I examined the room for the first time. It had high ceilings, dirt floors and targets everywhere. Not the most attractive setting, but I had no room to complain. Seeing as class was almost over, I asked the white haired ox to drag Laelos back in and lay him on his desk, soon after I dismissed the class and stayed behind.

Sharpening my nails, I used them to remove the tiny bullets from Laelos's skull and used my own saliva to heal the wound I had reopened. Laelos had cringed in pain as I had extracted the bullets, but soon drifted happily back to unconsciousness when I healed the wound. I stared at him for a minute wondering whether or not he actually loved me. I dismissed the thought and turned away looking for my gun. I didn't remember sending it back so I manifested it once more then sent it back to my weapons closet in the castle.

Deciding that it was time for me to take my leave, I picked up my book bag from the corner of the room where I had left it earlier and silently made my way out the door. The halls were already vacant besides a few stragglers anxious to get home and some of the staff still busy with grading or things of the sort in their classrooms.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16- An Old Friend, More or Less

I hurried toward the entrance that Lukanatian had brought me into the school from this afternoon and smile to myself when I saw Luna waiting patiently outside for me. I placed my hands on the door and pushed it open allowing a small zephyr to escape through the opening I had created. Luna looked up at me and then whinnied pleasantly. She had to have been waiting for a while and so I felt bad for her.

I ran out the door to her and swung my arms around her neck. She nuzzled my arm for a second and then turned to look toward the direction of the castle. I looked over there and noticed a small fire. I jumped on Luna's back and we were off toward the fire.

As we approached the fire, I realized that it wasn't just any fire; it was a fire started by magic. I wondered who would have done such a thing. Suddenly, sounds of explosions emerged from behind the castle. I followed them, still on Luna and when we emerged from the trees, I saw a surprising scene. Several of the castle's workers were gathered around both Magus and Lukanatian who seemed to be fighting against one another with fire magic. I approached and some of the workers bowed and made their way back to the castle, others stayed to watch how the scene played out.

"Enough you two!" I yelled with a commanding tone.

Both of the demons' heads turned towards me surprised to see me there. The fighting ceased and I put my head in my hands and sighed.

"Do you two realize that you could have burned my castle down?!" I asked a bit freaked out.

"I-I'm sorry, your majesty…" They replied in unison.

"Well, don't just stand there like a couple of idiots, go put out the fire in front of my castle unless you want to do all of the rebuilding it'll take when that fire burns my castle down!" I yelled. The two quickly ran off, still bickering as I dismissed the other castle workers and Luna.

I rubbed my temples as I began walking to the front of the castle, but I began hearing something. I turned toward the neck of the forest where the noise had come from and looked around; hoping that I could find whatever had made the strange noise. Nothing was in sight, but it almost seemed as if something was luring me inside the darkness of the forest.

I turned to look back toward where the workers and the two boys had gone off, seeing that no one was there nor watching, I ventured into the dark forest alone. Each step I took came easier and easier as I neared whatever was calling me, though the tug was growing stronger and stronger. It was almost as if whoever or whatever was growing more and more urgent with every step I took.

I heard the noise again, only this time, I could tell what it was. It was a soft moaning, and one so strangely morbid, it made chills run down my spine, not something you can often make a demon do. I slowly turned toward the noise and found a small cave hidden amongst the natural rock walls of the forest. I took a step toward the cave and felt my heartbeat quicken, alerting me to something ominous about the cave.

I turned my nose toward the cave and took a deep breath. Scanning the contents of the scent, I could tell that there was a smell that was like that of a demon, but not just any demon. It smelled as if the demon had been there for a long time, but not just that either, it also smelled as if he or she was close to death. I took a few more steps toward the cave and listened closely to the sounds. There was indeed the sound of a demon breathing heavily along with the moaning now.

Entranced by my curiosity, I continued on into the dark cave, my only light the red setting sun. Though demons can see in the dark, we don't often rely on just that so I kept all of my senses active, alert and attuned to whatever was in the cave. Each step I took echoed within the small confines of the rock structure.

I stopped and smelled the air again, it smelled the same, but it was as if it was a familiar scent. It was dangerous, alluring, cocky and arrogant, yet it was somehow sweet and kind. Something smelled off about the familiarity of it though, it made me worried and upset for whatever was emitting the scent. I ran my hand through my hair and took a deep breath, trying to suppress my worries. It was no use though, after smelling that smell, it completely took control of both my mind and body.

I turned a corner and there it was, the cause of all of my strange actions and reactions, a wolf, but not just any wolf, a dying wolf. I immediately took a step back and drew in a deep breath as my heartbeat once again quicken. I stepped forward toward the wolf and realized not only that he was male, but also that his eyes were fixated intently on me. His eyes, both light blue, scanned my figure several times, waiting for any movement.

I looked closer at the male and noticed that both of his paws and head were chained to the wall. Though he had enough leeway to lie on the ground with his head between his paws as he was, he didn't have nearly enough to move at all. I reached down to touch the chain, but before I could even get near it, the wolf bared his fangs and lunged at me with all of what little strength he had left. He fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, going unconscious.

I once again tried to place my hands upon the old rusty chain, but the moment I touched it, it sent shocks all throughout my body, sapping me of only a tiny portion of my endless energy. It seemed to me that the chain was some kind of energy drainer and that this wolf had been drained of most of his energy long ago and so was now relying solely on shear willpower to pull through his hellish nightmare. I touched the chain again and realized that it was weaker than the first time it shocked me. With every new touch, I became more and more accustomed to how it felt until I became so used to it that it was just like a needle pricking my finger.

With only a small portion of my strength I placed my hands on each of the chains one by one and ripped them apart, freeing my dear comrade. As soon as the last one was off, the wolf darted up and out of the cave as if his life depended on it. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to chase him in my human form that I was currently in, I decided to just let him go for now, only to find him another day.

I followed the scent of the now distinguished fire back to the castle and once there, I heard arguing inside the doors. Sighing, I painfully changed from my human form to my demon form, ready to break whatever fight was occurring on the inside. I lifted my leg up and kicked the door open with half of my strength, almost knocking it clear off its hinges, inside stood a strange man arguing with both Magus and Lukanatian.

I examined the man, although he looked weak, I could tell that it was just from exhaustion and that he was pretty strong even though he was exhausted. I looked him up and down once more noticing that his once dapper clothes were torn and tarnished and that his gray-turquoise and black hair was ragged and damaged.

"What the hell guys? I mean really? Just like ten minutes ago you guys were fighting against each other and now you've already found someone else to fight with." I sighed and shook my head back and forth.

"We didn't start it though. It was all him!" Magus yelled.

"I don't care who started it, I'm ending it!" I replied angrily to Magus. The man or more so boy who had been standing and arguing with them stood staring at me as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Who the heck is this? No one is supposed to see me like this! Who let him in? Whoever it was, please kindly remind them that they aren't supposed to do that without Lukanatian's or my own authorization." I announced.

"Your majesty, this is Sephire…" Lukanatian trailed off.

"What? No, it can't be… It doesn't even look that much like him…" I replied.

Just as Lukanatian had spoken the name Sephire, I remembered him. He was my fiancé. I had never really liked his arrogance though and so I didn't pay much attention to him, but any time he got the chance, he was all over me. He preached to anyone he knew that he and I were going to be married, but I never really considered it because I knew I'd find a way around it somehow, just like my dad had done.

Although it was a marriage, it was a marriage that had been arranged long before I was even born by my grandfather, Elias.

Though my grandfather had been long dead, it was decided that in order to maintain the peace between our kingdom and Sephire's kingdom, we would be forced to marry. Though, for Sephire, he couldn't wait to marry me, but on the other hand, I would do or sacrifice anything in order to not have to be married to someone like him. He used to be younger than me first of all and second of all, his attitude was always along the lines of 'I'm a prince so everything must be handed to me on a silver platter' and I just could not put up with that.

Just two years before I was supposed to marry him though, the last great battle had started and Sephire mysteriously disappeared. Though I originally was going to look for him, I bargained with his kingdom and we came to an agreement. The agreement was that if I found him before he was found by anyone else or if he died, then I wouldn't be forced to marry him. After a bit I kind of gave up due to the battle I had to deal with and then I died, so I couldn't really do much about it during that time. After getting back here, I had completely forgotten about it until Lukanatian had uttered his name.

Sephire jumped into the air, while flying toward me he had transformed into his beast form which, oddly enough looked exactly like the wolf I had just freed. I ducked under him, allowing him to crash into a nearby suit of armor. Though he was a formidable opponent to anyone else, to me defeating him was like swatting a fly out of the air.

Sephire lay panting in a crumpled heap once again, though this time he wasn't near death, just extremely tired and confused. He whined as he looked up at me as if asking for some help.

"Well look at you now, little prince! You're still a prince and older than me while I'm to be crowned queen and nearly a year younger than you!" I laughed.

"_Just shut up. You're not even Victoire are you?"_ He asked in wolf speech.

"Yes I am and why should I help you? It's not like you didn't just leave me waiting for you to come back!" I yelled as if I was actually pissed about that and apparently he believed it.

"I'm sorry, but it's not my freaking fault I was kidnapped and dragged into a cave in my sleep! Not to mention the fact that you didn't find me until just recently!" He replied.

"Well it's not my fault I was dead! For all I care, I could've just let you die in that cave and I wouldn't have even cared an ounce!" I yelled as I stormed up the stairs to my room.

As I climbed the stairs, I could tell that Sephire was following me and so I sped up my pace to my full speed and soon was at the metal door. I threw it open and stepped through, all the while, staring at the stairs, waiting for Sephire to appear. Turning to shut the door, Sephire appeared and was so close to me that I nearly toppled over.

"So surprised to see me aren't you little one? Not that you missed me or anything. There's just something I would like to give you before you ship me back to Armill." He finished. Armill was the kingdom that Sephire was born in and was to one day become a prince of and run the kingdom alongside his older brother.

Sephire quickly leaned in and gently parted my lips, only to shove his tongue into my mouth. I pushed him back as I nearly threw up all over him, but I swallowed the urge to.

One of the other things that I hated about most Sephire was that he was an awful kisser. I love a good French kiss and all, and he knows that, but he's just awful at them. He's too pushy and always rushes things whenever it came to intimacy and on top of that, though he likes to think he's a playboy, he's never actually kissed a girl besides me and he's never gone farther than that, nor will I let him with me.

I wiped my face off and called Lukanatian through our bond; he appeared instantly. I could see the hatred he harbored toward Sephire written all over his face and it kind of pleased me to see that he was pissed over something this little. It was because it showed that he was serious about his feelings and that he didn't want somebody doing something I did not want nor need to me. Lukanatian blocked me from Sephire's view and growled territorially at him.

"How dare you touch her when she clearly does not like you nor want you to and mess with her feelings this way? She's only been back here for a few days and causing her so much emotional stress is not healthy! We don't even know if her condition is stable enough for her to go to school and be alright, let alone be molested by a loser like you!" Lukanatian spat venomously.

"How dare you yell at a prince of Armill you lowly servant! Just because she treats you with a little more respect than the rest of the servants does not mean you're allowed to go around ridiculing princes! I should have you hung for your crime against me!" Sephire countered.

"Sephire! Hold your tongue! This man is not just a lowly servant, and there is no such thing as a lowly servant in my kingdom! In my kingdom everyone is equal unlike yours! This man is one of my key pieces in both keeping my kingdom and myself alive and running so don't go running your mouth off to me or him about his flaws! It's not like you don't have any yourself! The English Kingdom of Arrogance is indeed a good name for Armill! I shall see to it that you die here if you harm so much as one hair on this man's head, besides no one will know! They all think you're dead!" I yelled.

"Did you say one hair?" Sephire asked angrily just before cutting one hair from Lukanatian's head.

I screamed and lunged for Sephire with all of my might, but my scream soon turned to a howl as did my skin to fur and hands and feet to paws. Though as I flew through the air, I did not yet realize this and just before I was able cut him with my claws, Lukanatian jumped in front of him defensively and I accidently allowed my now razor sharp teeth to sink into his shoulder. Blood dripped into my mouth as both he and I fell to the floor surprised.

My instincts screamed at me to get up and leave and through all of the surprise, I couldn't control my actions and so I just ran and jumped. Out a window that is. The black glass shattered all around me and fell along with me. As soon as I saw the ground, I thought it was the end, but then huge wings appeared on my back. I quickly stretched them out and flapped up and down with all of my might. Just before I hit the ground, one big breeze of wind pushed me up and into the cool air.

Soon enough, I got the hang of flying and was on my way to wherever my wings were taking me. My instincts still in complete control of me told me after I was about an hour or so away that it was time for me to land and so that's what I did. Though flying was easy to me now, landing was something that needed a bit of work. As I began to lose altitude, I forgot to adjust the shape of my wing and fell to the forest floor into a mud puddle, completely drenching my fur.

"That's just freaking great! I'm in the middle of a forest, now knowingly loved by no one, have no food and now I'm drenched in mud!" I yelled angrily, but the only thing I heard was barking and growling, no words at all.

I sniffed the air and detected the scent of water nearby. I just ran to the water, following solely the scent and still relying on my instincts. Once I was close to the water, I growled menacingly to any of the animals that could have been left, alerting them that they would get eaten if they didn't get away from both me and the water.

I leaned my head down and stared into the reflective surface of the crystalline water. By now, I had already realized that I was a wolf, but it still shocked me just to see it myself. I lashed out at my reflection in the water as I noticed my bloodied muzzle and remembered what I had done. I jumped into the shallow stream and allowed the slow current to gently wash the mud stains out of my fur. I hopped out of the water as the last bit of dirt was removed and stared at my new self, my beast form.

Black fur was my dominant gene; while red was my recessive and both of my eyes were a pale shade of milky blue, almost as if I were blind though I clearly wasn't. I wasn't that bulky, but I wasn't that skinny either. I was just the right size and all of my body was lean and lined with muscles just bursting with energy. Even without the wings, I stood at a towering four and a half feet, probably my full size. The wings were still there as they always were, though I just didn't notice them until I was falling through the air to my death only an hour ago. The patterns of red on my fur were all just random streaks except for the fleur de lis on my forehead, but that was covered by my thick black mane of fur, and the filigree that bordered the feathers of my wings. The rest of the fur that covered my body was all black as night.

Turning toward the sound of a stick breaking, I smelled the air and noticed the presence of my dinner. I leapt into the air and on top of a fat, plump rabbit and boy did it put up a fight until the last, but that was to be expected because it was a demon rabbit after all. The only animals in Hell that aren't demonic are those that the humans brought with them, or angelic ones, but they were kind of rare in these parts of the woods.

I remembered where I was due to the geography of my surroundings and wondered why my instincts had told me to land here. The forest was situated right between the kingdoms of Chioni and Hayvanlar. Chioni, The Greek Kingdom of Snow, was gifted with what seemed like an almost endless amount of snow in both the cold years and warm years in Hell. On the other hand, Hayvanlar, The Turkish Kingdom of Animals, was not subject to any particular type of weather, but animals were quite plentiful and that's probably where the rabbit I had just caught had wandered away from. Each of the kingdoms has a particular language and affiliation.

If people were to go looking for me, it would take at least a couple of months to find me here due to both the fact that I was supposed to be dead and we couldn't let that get out, along with the fact that my kingdom was kind of in a bit of a bad position to go around searching for me due to the fact that we could be attacked by any of the six kingdoms that hated mine.

Somehow, my kingdom ended up losing a few key partners in both trading and commerce such as Bellezza, The Italian Kingdom of Beauty, and Pozhar, The Russian Kingdom of Fire. Both of the kingdoms had products we needed such as Bellezza's beauty products and Pozhar's magic products. Frankly though, pretty much all of the kingdoms were scared of Pozhar, Russians do make scary demons… they're quite violent… no offense to them though.

After picking at my dinner for a while, I realized how tired I was and so I found a cozy little tree hollow nearby and decided to sleep there for the night. That night was a quiet, peaceful night, unlike the one I had spent in the castle. Though I really didn't want to stay a demon wolf forever, I could get used to this life of peace and no running around. About two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, and I was actually pretty calm and peaceful feeling. This was probably the most calming and tranquil place I could find in the demon world after all. I wondered if anyone missed me, but quickly dismissed the thought as I felt tears coming to my eyes. I didn't even know wolves were capable of crying…


	17. Chapter 17

**See Bottom of This For Update**

Chapter 17- The Difference Between Us

I turned toward the water and noticed the white and black wolf with piercing red eyes staring straight at me. She cautiously backed away, realizing that she would probably lose if she challenged me to a fight. I stood from my position and began approaching her, though with each step I took, she would back up one. For a few steps this lasted, but I soon grew tired of her games and spoke.

"Why are you trespassing in my territory?! My scent is all around here, can you not smell it?" I questioned.

"Yes, I can smell it, but apparently you scared one of my pack members off a few weeks ago and so I came to ask why and to hear your apology." She finished still strong.

"The reason why I scared one of your pack members off was because I was in a bad mood and my instincts were out of control. If I hadn't warned him or her to leave then they could have ended up dead! I'm sorry I scared them, but if I hadn't they wouldn't have run off and would have been dead right now!" I yelled in wolf speech.

"No need to yell, I do now realize that you were only so brash in your way of warning them because of your troubles, not only that, but Xanora is also quite timid and I think she might have over exaggerated when she was telling me about what happened. I'm sorry for the trouble or inconvenience I may have caused you. I'll be on my way now." She turned away from me and headed back toward where she had originally approached from.

"Wait. Why are there wolves out here? Shouldn't you guys be in Hayvanlar or at least somewhere farther away from all of the kingdoms?" I asked hurriedly so as not to miss the opportunity to get some information out of her. The wolf turned toward me and tilted her head toward the side.

"Didn't you hear about those attacks last week? Demon wolves have been turning up dead everywhere and I sure as heck didn't want myself or one of my pack members to become one of those unfortunate few so we moved away from our home to out her." She sighed.

"Oh… I didn't hear about that…" I trailed off looking away as a small breeze blew a few papery leaves past my face.

"It'll be alright, we just have to learn to adapt to and survive anything that comes our way. By the way why's a huge, beautiful and fierce wolf like you in the forest in the first place? Shouldn't you be living the good life with a hot guy by your side?" She questioned.

"Well I guess you could say I was, but I got so pissed off at someone that I didn't even realize that I had injured someone I love in the process of trying to hurt the one I was pissed at… I guess I was so upset and distraught that I just shifted into this form and flew here afterward… Since then, I haven't once been able to switch back to my normal form, nor did I ever know how. I fear I may never be able to return and tell him that I'm sorry…" I said sadly as my eyes began to feel prickly.

"Well, you can always come stay with us if you want to, or you can come live with us forever in Paradise once we discover it." She said happily as her tail swished back and forth, slowly walking back once again.

Something about her clicked in my mind as she finished the sentence. Her voice, her demeanor and even her speaking patterns were almost exactly the same as Julia's. I turned my head to the side and blinked a few times in confusion, trying to regain my composure. I couldn't believe that Julia had been standing in front of me all this time and I hadn't even realized it until just now. I didn't even have a clue of who she was until she started talking about Paradise.

Demons, humans, and even angels all dream of a place known as Paradise where everything bends according to their will and goes their way. Though humans believe more strongly in it than demons, Julia must have taken her belief in it along with her to this life.

"Julia! I've told you once and I'll tell you twice, there's no such thing as Paradise!" I yelled causing her to quickly turn in surprise.

Something like this was a typical comeback of mine that I always used whenever she mentioned her so called Paradise. I probably believed in finding a place such as that when I was very young, but with every day I grow older and with every hardship I try to survive, it makes it seem less and less possible. I wondered day in and day out whether or not she would ever give up on finding such a place, now it seemed even less likely.

"Tori…?" She questioned confusedly.

"Yessssss? You called?" I answered in a sing-songy voice.

"Impossible! I thought you were dead! He said you were going to die in less than an hour! Wait, how do I know you're really Tori? How? Unless you give me one good reason for me to actually believe you're Tori, I'm not buying it one bit!" She said all at once.

Feeling a bit confused, I sighed and began to ponder all the things I know about Julia. Knowing that I would have to be really specific and right on target, I narrowed my options down to two simple yet complex things I know about her that no one else would know.

"Well let's see, one, I know that every morning when you take a shower, you sing 'Singing in the Rain' at the top of your lungs, which in turn wakes all of your family up. And two, I know that you've never actually tried having a real relationship because the first time someone convinced you to open your heart up to them, they 'crushed it into tiny pieces and tossed them into oblivion.'" I finished with a sad look in my eyes.

"It is you…" She said softly as she ran to me and changed into her human form. She threw her arms around my neck and I laid my head on her shoulder as I allowed a few tears to escape my eyes. She backed up and looked me up and down.

"I bet Zakuira can do something about this for you. Follow me!" She yelled as she shifted back into her wolf form and took off. I quickly dashed after her, completely forgetting about my current home and all of my worries and focusing solely on the joy of running.

As we ran farther south from where I was, the weather became a bit warmer, closer to around seventy degrees, a bit warmer than in my kingdom where the temperature remained around sixty degrees. We ran and ran and ran for what seemed like hours until finally coming upon a stone cave. As we approached the entrance, I noticed that the entrance was blocked with a wooden door. Julia approached the door, changed into her human form and knocked a few times, a slit in the door opened and she whispered a few things to the male guard which I couldn't quite make out.

The door opened and let her in, but before I could get in, the door shut in my face. Feeling a bit pissed I scratched it in order to find out why I wasn't let in. The slit in the door was slowly opened and the guard stared then rolled his eyes as if he couldn't care less.

"Password." The male grumbled.

"What?!" I exclaimed in wolf speech which he apparently understood seeing as he answered me.

"I won't let you in unless you tell me the password." He replied.

Though I didn't know the password, I knew something else that would get me in that the guard wouldn't expect. Most male demons in general will put up a tough front such as the one right in front of me was doing, but every male demon has a weakness and I had this guy pretty figured out.

Though humans and demons are quite diverse, their personalities are just the same minus the lust for killing for humans. I once knew a guy who acted and did the same exact things as this guy was doing when I first met him. After a while I figured out the guy's weakness and so I had him wrapped around my finger and soon this guy would be too.

I took a few steps back and fell to my knees. I threw my head in my lap and began allowing my sad emotions to overtake me in order to put up a realistic enough show. My eyes filled with regret and sorrow and I began to mumble to myself in order to keep my façade up.

"W-why did I have to do that? Why couldn't I just have acted like a normal demon? Why did I have to act so brash and short-tempered? If I hadn't let my powers get out of control… then I…wouldn't be sitting here crying… IT'S MY ENTIRE FAULT!" I howled out of anger and regret. The guard was starting to wear down bit by bit so I knew I had to keep this degrading act up.

"…I'm just a stupid girl. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!" I screamed as I lashed out with a tiny portion of my strength at a nearby tree, ripping the bark from it like a knife through butter.

I slowly got back up on all fours and began padding away, all the while keeping my head down and my face hidden. Just before I was about to run off, the guard opened the door and called out to me.

"Come back! It's fine, you don't have to tell me the password!" He yelled pathetically.

"Really? Are you sure?" I replied trying to fake surprise.

"Yeah…" He trailed off.

I turned around and ran straight in the door without even saying thank you. The moment I was in, it was dark for a minute, but then the next door in front of me opened and it was as bright as day. My once dark surroundings unfolded to look a bit like a sunny meadow setting from an old black and white film. Tall green grass swayed back and forth in the wind appearing to be short, shimmering waves of seawater. Playing amongst these waves were many different wolves of all different shapes, sizes, ages and colors. Upon noticing my entrance, each cowered down, hiding themselves amongst the grass. I simply lie down and put my massive head between my paws, showing them that I wasn't there to hurt them.

One unusually small white wolf that had been playing by herself emerged from the grass and walked boldly up to me. She walked around me examining and smelling me, making sure that I wasn't a threat to her in any way. After she had come to the conclusion that I would cause her no harm, she nudged at my stomach, asking for me to sit up. As I did so, I got a good look of her and began examining every feature from the end of her tail to the tip of her nose.

Though she seemed to be only a few years old she already had scars from claws that once drug their way down her face. On top of that, she looked a bit underweight and malnourished; I could plainly see her ribs even with all of her fur. Her coat was white with thin black streaks that looked like more claw marks though I knew they weren't. Her eyes were a mysterious shade of deep maroon, a color that could allow her to entrance anyone if she tried. Altogether, she didn't look to be in very good shape by my deduction.

After she had me get up, she looked at the others and motioned toward me, but they just ignored her and cautiously went back to playing. She sneezed and looked back up at me, her gaze full of purity and innocence. It made me long for a better world not for myself, but for all of the naive children like her. I turned to Julia who now stood behind, her features frozen in place as her human face paled.

"What's wrong?" I asked, knowing that even though she was in her human form, she could understand me.

"…It's nothing…" She trailed off, turning and looking out across their concealed wonder of nature.

Hey guys, it's me,

I have some semi-sad news. I'm going to stop writing this story. Instead, I'm going to pick up the other one and write it on Fiction Press. I know some of you are sad and wondering why and honestly, the reason is because it keeps getting deleted from my computer and every time, I lose hundreds of pages. Plus, it's just kind of dragging on. If you want something else to read come check out my other story which I have now renamed "A Picture worth More Than a Thousand Words" on Fiction Press. Thanks to the person who told me about fiction press! Oh and to 'Attack of The Mary Sue': **** You Too 3

Ciao, My name on fiction press is 'waitingforhim'


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